Malnutrition and nutrition support in COVID-19: The results of a nutrition support protocol.
Endocrinol Diabetes Nutr (Engl Ed)
; 68(9): 621-627, 2021 Nov.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1575090
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION:
COVID-19 is characterized by various clinical manifestations, mainly respiratory involvement. Disease-related malnutrition is associated with impaired respiratory function and increased all-cause morbidity and mortality. Patients with COVID-19 infection carry a high nutritional risk. After designing a specific nutritional support protocol for this disease, we carried out a retrospective study on malnutrition and on the use of nutritional support in patients with COVID-19.METHODS:
We performed a retrospective study to determine whether nutritional support positively affected hospital stay, clinical complications, and mortality in patients with COVID-19. We compared the results with those of standard nutritional management. Our secondary objectives were to determine the prevalence of malnutrition in patients with COVID-19 and the value of nutritional support in the hospital where the study was performed.RESULTS:
At least 60% of patients with COVID-19 experience malnutrition (up to 78.66% presented at least 1 of the parameters studied). The specialized nutritional support protocol was indicated in only 21 patients (28%) and was started early in only 12 patients (16%). Hospital stay was significantly shorter in patients managed with the early protocol (5.09 days, 95% CI, 1.338-8.853, p<0.01). Similarly, in this group, respiratory distress was less severe and less frequent (41% vs 82.5%, p<0.007), and statistically significantly fewer complications were recorded (9/12 vs 91/63; p<0.001).CONCLUSIONS:
COVID-19 is associated with high rates of disease-related malnutrition. Early implementation of a specialized nutritional support plan can improve the prognosis of these patients by reducing hospital stay, the possibility of more severe respiratory distress, and complications in general.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Nutritional Support
/
Malnutrition
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Long Covid
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Endocrinol Diabetes Nutr (Engl Ed)
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
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