Association of Healthy Diet with Recovery Time from COVID-19: Results from a Nationwide Cross-Sectional Study.
Int J Environ Res Public Health
; 18(16)2021 08 04.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1341683
ABSTRACT
The world is still in need of an effective therapy to treat coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). This cross-sectional study was conducted on COVID-19 survivors in Saudi Arabia to investigate the influence of a healthy diet on the recovery time from COVID-19. A questionnaire was developed to assess participants' dietary habits, based on the 2015 Dutch food-based dietary guidelines. A total of 738 COVID-19 survivors participated in the study, of whom 237 (32.1%) were hospitalized for COVID-19 treatment while 501 (76.9%) were not hospitalized, and 320 (43.4%) were females and 418 (56.6%) were males. Overall, no significant difference was noted in healthy diet score between males and females; however, this score was significantly lower for Saudis compared to non-Saudis. Among the non-hospitalized patients, eating a more healthy diet was associated with a shorter duration of recovery (p < 0.05) and was significantly affected by gender (15.8 ± 9.3 male vs. 12.1 ± 8.9 female; p < 0.001) and marital status (12.1 ± 8.4 singles vs. 13.7 ± 9.3 married vs. 16.1 ± 11.8 divorced; p < 0.05). In contrast, no significant correlation was found with age or BMI. In this study, a more healthy diet was associated with a shorter duration of recovery from COVID-19. However, further studies are needed to thoroughly investigate the relationship between diet and recovery time from COVID-19.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Diet, Healthy
/
COVID-19 Drug Treatment
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Limits:
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
English
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Ijerph18168248
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