Papel do estado nutricional nos desfechos clínicos de idosos com COVID-19 sob cuidados intensivos em um hospital público de referência do Distrito Federal

Abstract

Elderly people and patients with comorbidities were identified as being at high risk for the severe form of covid-19. Objective: to investigate the role of nutritional status in clinical outcomes of elderly patients with covid-19 under intensive care. Method: longitudinal, retrospective, observational and analytical study. Elderly individuals with covid-19, admitted to the ICU and emergency box of a public hospital that are reference for the treatment of covid-19, were included. Poisson regression was used to verify the association of inadequate nutritional risk with the presented outcomes. Results: the sample consisted of 153 elderly, with 58% men. Previous nutritional disorders interfered with clinical outcomes, overweight patients had a higher risk of needing mechanical ventilation (RR: 2.15; 95%CI: 1.01-4.57; p= 0.044), but those with malnutrition evolved more to death. 66.3% of patients without excess weight and 33.63% with excess weight died. However, there was no association between overweight and death in elderly hospitalized with covid-19 (p=0.119). Conclusion: it was found that inadequate nutritional status, both overweight/obesity and malnutrition, can contribute to unfavorable outcomes, such as the need for mechanical ventilation and death, respectively. These findings reinforce the need for further studies to clarify the role of nutritional status in the clinical outcomes of covid-19.