Nutritional screening based on objective indices at admission predicts in-hospital mortality in patients with COVID-19

• Published in: Nutrition journal Vol. 20; no. 1; p. 46
• Main Authors: Song, Feier, Ma, Huan, Wang, Shouhong, Qin, Tiehe, Xu, Qing, Yuan, Huiqing, Li, Fei, Wang, Zhonghua, Liao, Youwan, Tan, Xiaoping, Song, Xiuchan, Zhang, Qing, Huang, Daozheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London BioMed Central Ltd 25.05.2021; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: biomarkers; China; Coronavirus; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; COVID-19 infection; death; disease severity; Food and nutrition; Hospital patients; Inflammation; Malnutrition; Medical examination; Mortality; Nutrition; Nutrition assessment; Nutrition monitoring; nutrition risk assessment; Nutritional status; Observational studies; Patients; Product/Service Evaluations; regression analysis; risk; therapeutics; China
• ISSN: 1475-2891; 1475-2891
• DOI: 10.1186/s12937-021-00702-8

Could nutritional status serve as prognostic factors for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)? The present study evaluated the clinical and nutritional characteristics of COVID-19 patients and explored the relationship between risk for malnutrition at admission and in-hospital mortality. A retrospective, observational study was conducted in two hospitals in Hubei, China. Confirmed cases of COVID-19 were typed as mild/moderate, severe, or critically ill. Clinical data and in-hospital death were collected. The risk for malnutrition was assessed using the geriatric nutritional risk index (GNRI), the prognostic nutritional index (PNI), and the Controlling Nutritional Status (CONUT) via objective parameters at admission. Two hundred ninety-five patients were enrolled, including 66 severe patients and 41 critically ill patients. Twenty-five deaths were observed, making 8.47% in the whole population and 37.88% in the critically ill subgroup. Patients had significant differences in nutrition-related parameters and inflammatory biomarkers among three types of disease severity. Patients with lower GNRI and PNI, as well as higher CONUT scores, had a higher risk of in-hospital mortality. The receiver operating characteristic curves demonstrated the good prognostic implication of GNRI and CONUT score. The multivariate logistic regression showed that baseline nutritional status, assessed by GNRI, PNI, or CONUT score, was a prognostic indicator for in-hospital mortality. Despite variant screening tools, poor nutritional status was associated with in-hospital death in patients infected with COVID-19. This study highlighted the importance of nutritional screening at admission and the new insight of nutritional monitoring or therapy.