Food intake and weight loss of survival inpatients in the course of COVID-19 infection

NutriCoviD30 is a longitudinal multicenter cohort study that aimed to provide nutritional objective data of inpatients during COVID-19 infection. Food intake and weight trajectories, as well as clinical signs of the disease, pre-existing chronic diseases, and nutritional strategies were collected and analyzed during the course of the disease. Their association was estimated using mixed-effect regression modeling. Patients were recruited from French university hospitals from May until July 2020. For the 403 included patients (mean age 62.2 ± 14.2 years; 63% males), median [interquartile] hospitalization duration was 13 days [8; 20], and 30% of patients were admitted in intensive care unit. Patients declared a median 70% food intake decrease in the acute phase, and the disease resulted in an average loss of 8% of the pre-disease weight (corresponding to -6.5 kg). While most patients recovered their usual food intake one month after hospital discharge, they only regained half of their weight loss, such that malnutrition, which affected 67% of patients during their hospitalization, persisted in 41% of them. Patients with overweight, obesity and diabetes reported an additional weight loss of over 1.5% of their initial bodyweight during the hospitalization and recovery phase. In order to prevent malnutrition and its long-term effect, mainly combined with a rapid weight loss predominantly affecting lean body mass, implementation of nutritional support is needed for COVID-19 inpatients. It should start early in the course of the infection, and be extended up to the recovery phase.