The effects of fasting in Ramadan on the risk factors of COVID-19 in adolescents: a brief review

ABSTRACT

Each year, many of Muslims including children and adolescents fast in Ramadan. This year, the month of Ramadan is in the period of the outbreak of COVID-19, and due to its spread, fighting this disease has brought about a new challenge for all Muslims in the world. Given the lack of studies on this issue, as well as the direct effect of fasting on the body and soul in the period of COVID-19 pandemic, this study intends to reflect the positive results of fasting in a mini-review. Therefore, online databases such as Web of Science, Scopus, Medline, EMBASE and Magiran were screened using the key words including "Fasting", "Ramadan", "COVID-19", "Coronavirus", "Obesity", "Mental health", "Muslim" for the latest information. These keywords were searched from November 2001 to November 2020 in Persian and English languages. This study revealed that fasting by reducing obesity can help people to control their diabetes and cardiac diseases which are among the underlying diseases of COVID-19. In addition, fasting has an effective role in reducing violence and social problems. Interestingly, avoiding eating and drinking will reduce the contact of infected hands with mouth and reduces infection through swallowing.