Nutritional screening predicts mortality in hospitalized COVID-19 patients

Malnutrition or poor nutritional status was found to be related to mortality in hospitalized COVID-19 patients, a retrospective observational study in Nutrition Journal explained. Feier Song et al. assessed the nutritional and baseline clinical features of coronavirus-infected individuals and studied the possible link between malnutrition/poor nutrition/undernutrition at the time of admission and mortality risk in hospitalized patients.

The clinical data of mild or moderate, severe, critically ill COVID-19-infected individuals and mortality were assembled. Simple screening tools like Controlling Nutritional Status (CONUT) score, Geriatric nutritional risk index (GNRI) in elderly patients and Prognostic nutritional index (PNI) were used for examining malnutrition risk examination.

A total of 295 patients (66 severe patients; 41 critically ill patients) were registered for the study. Overall, 25 deaths were noted, contributing to 8.47% in the entire population and 37.88% in  critically ill individuals. The patients had notable differences in nutrition-linked parameters and inflammatory biomarkers among different disease severity. Patients with higher CONUT scores along with lower GNRI and PNI were more prone to in-hospital mortality. 

The receiver operating characteristic curves illustrated a good prognostic implication of CONUT score and GNRI. As found, the baseline nutritional status was a prognostic indicator for death/mortality. This study brought about novel understandings of nutritional monitoring and the significance of nutritional screening at hospitalization.