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.
Malnutrition and nutrition support in COVID-19: The results of a nutrition support protocol