Improving Nutritional Status Was Associated with Decreasing Disease Severity and Shortening of Negative Conversion Time of PCR Test in Non-ICU Patients with COVID-19

Xiaodan Wang; Weiping Deng; Jiehui Zhao; Yongchao Guo; Haifang Lai; Yueliang Hu; Wenyan Kang; Yong Li; Junli Zuo

doi:10.2147/IDR.S409615

Improving Nutritional Status Was Associated with Decreasing Disease Severity and Shortening of Negative Conversion Time of PCR Test in Non-ICU Patients with COVID-19

Infect Drug Resist. 2023 Jul 6:16:4443-4452. doi: 10.2147/IDR.S409615. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Xiaodan Wang^#¹, Weiping Deng^#¹, Jiehui Zhao^#², Yongchao Guo³, Haifang Lai⁴, Yueliang Hu⁵, Wenyan Kang¹, Yong Li^{6

7

8}, Junli Zuo⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology and Institute of Neurology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200025, People's Republic of China.
² Department of General Practice, Daning Community Health Service Center, Shanghai, 200072, People's Republic of China.
³ Department of Nutrition, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200025, People's Republic of China.
⁴ Department of Rehabilitation Medicine Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200025, People's Republic of China.
⁵ Department of Geriatrics, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200025, People's Republic of China.
⁶ Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200025, People's Republic of China.
⁷ Institute of Respiratory Disease, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
⁸ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Emergency Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Respiratory Infectious Disease, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Nutrition is an important prevention in old patients with COVID-19. However, in China, there are few studies on the correlation between nutrition and COVID-19.

Methods: A total of 148 hospitalized COVID-19 (65.7 ± 16.0 [range: from 21 to 101] years old) patients were enrolled in this study. The information of demographic, biochemical results, vaccination doses, types of COVID-19, PCR test negative conversion time, and scores of Mini Nutritional Assessment Short Form (MNA-SF) for evaluating nutritional status were recorded. We first explored the relationships between MNA-SF performance and the severities of COVID-19 in the groups with non-vaccinated, vaccinated, and all the patients using multivariable ordinal logistic regression. Further, we explored the relationships between performance of MNA-SF and the time of negative conversion of PCR in the groups with non-vaccinated, vaccinated, and all the patients using COX proportional hazards survival regression.

Results: Group of patients with malnutrition or at risk of malnutrition group was associated with older of the age, those who had not been vaccinated, in fewer people who were asymptomatic type and in more people who showed longer of the negative conversion time of PCR, lower of the BMI, and the lower of the hemoglobin level. Each additional increase of one point of MNA-SF was associated with a 17% decrease in the odds of a worse type of COVID-19 in all patients, and the significant result exists in non-vaccinated patients. One point increase of MNA-SF was associated with increased 11% of hazard ratios of turning negative of PCR and well-nourished group was associated with increased 46% of hazard ratio of turning negative of PCR.

Conclusion: Higher nutrition is associated with less severity of COVID-19, especially in the non-vaccinated group. Higher nutrition is also associated with shorter time of turning negative of PCR in non-ICU COVID-19 patients.

Keywords: COVID-19; MNA-SF; nutrition; vaccination.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by Clinical Science and Shanghai Municipal Hospital New Frontier Technology Joint Project (SHDC12019X20), Shanghai Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning (Grant No.2020YJZX0124).