Significance of Screening Frailty, Sarcopenia, and Malnutrition in Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19: A One-Year Follow-Up Study

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to explore the effect of sarcopenia, malnutrition, and frailty screening tools on one-year mortality in hospitalized adult patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Materials and Methods: Patients, 18 years of age, who were admitted to the COVID-19 clinic were enrolled in this prospective study. The clinical frailty scale (CFS) and SARC-F questionnaire were used for frailty and sarcopenia screening. Nutrition Risk Screening (NRS-2002) and Mini Nutritional Assessment-Short Form (MNA-SF) were performed to screen for malnutrition. The survival of all participants was investigated by using the Turkish national death registry. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed. Results: A total of 72 subjects were enrolled in this study. The rate of patients with sarcopenia risk, malnutrition risk (via MNA-SF), malnutrition risk (via NRS-2002), and living with frailty were 75%, 93.8%, 81.3%, and 50.0% in the deceased group, respectively. Conversely, the rates of patients with sarcopenia risk, malnutrition risk (via MNA-SF), malnutrition risk (via NRS-2002), and living with frailty were 23.2%, 71.4%, 60.7%, and 16.1% in the alive group, respectively. SARC-F score (OR 1.331, p=0.006), MNA-SF score (OR 1.695, p=0.002), NRS-2002 score (OR 1.580, p=0.024), and CFS (OR 1.639, p=0.009) score were independently associated with one-year mortality after adjusting for sex and age. Conclusion: MNA-SF, SARC-F, and CFS may be used for mortality risk estimation after discharge from the hospital who were admitted for acute disease.