Evaluation of Nutritional Risk and Prevalence of Obesity in Patients with Covid-19 in A Reference Hospital in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction The Coronavirus has spread to almost every country in the world, causing the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The coronavirus stands out among the other infections especially by it's high contagious power and important effects on the respiratory system. The COVID-19 has differents ways of presentation and these are influenced by the patient's previous nutricional status, correlated with the patient's lifestyle and comorbities. Objective this survey seeks to analyze the nutritional status and the prevalence of obesity in patients hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2. Methods: this is a descriptive, prospective and cross-sectional study type, which 41 patients affected by COVID-19 were interviewed. Patient's weight and height were used to assess the BMI, and nutritional risk assessment was performed using the Nutritional Risk Screening tool (NRS 2002). For the analysis, Absolute (AF) and Relative Frequency (RF), the mean and the standard deviation were calculated. Results It was observerd that 78% of the participants had a high nutritional risk, while only 22% had a low nutritional risk. Besides that, 34% showed overweight and 41.4% showed obesity. Conclusion the existence of a high prevalence of increased nutritional risk was evidenced, in addition to the high frequency of overweight in patients affected by SARS-CoV-2.