Nutritional factors associated with mortality in hospitalized patients with COVID-19

Malnutrition is a risk factor that can lead to diminished physical and mental function and impaired clinical outcome from diseases. This study was performed to investigate the influence of nutritional characteristics, age and the presence of pre-comorbidities in hospital mortality or medical discharge in a sample of hospitalized patients with COVID-19.

This historical cohort study was conducted in adults and elderly patients with COVID-19 who were admitted to a nursing ward at the University Hospital of Brasilia (Brazil). Data regarding demographics, comorbidities, laboratory parameters, nutritional characteristics (NRS 2002, SARC-F, BMI) and discharge or death were retrospectively extracted from medical records. Differences in each group (in-hospital mortality or discharge) were assessed using unpaired Student's t test for continuous variables, or Pearson Chi-square tests for categorical data.

A total of 222 patients with COVID-19 were enrolled in this study. Nutritional risk and sarcopenia risk were higher in patients who died compared to patients who were discharged (3.55 ± 1.30 vs 2.96 ± 1.30; p = 0.005, 6.81 ± 1.84 vs 4.96 ± 2.95; p < 0.001, respectively). BMI, albumin, and total protein were lower in mortality group than in the discharge group (25.10 ± 5.46 vs 27.82 ± 6.76; p = 0.009, 2.81 ± 0.62 vs 3.27 ± 0.53; p < 0.001, 6.08 ± 0.87 vs 6.48 ± 0.86; p = 0.007, respectively). The mean age between groups was also different with a higher age in the mortality group (70.24 ± 16.23) than in the discharge group (60.54 ± 16.57).

Uses of validated tools to identify risk for malnutrition and sarcopenia would be beneficial in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in order to optimize the treatment between them.