Malnutrition leads to worse COVID-19 outcomes

Both children and adults with a history of malnutrition are at a higher risk of developing a severe episode of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), a recent study has found.

Drawing from data across 56 US hospitals, the researchers looked at the data of 103,099 COVID-19 inpatients, in whom a history of malnutrition was defined as a positive diagnosis by a dietician. Of the hospitalizations, 94,495 involved adult patients, while 8,604 were paediatric cases.

Among adults, 12.1 percent developed severe disease, and 2.1 percent had a history of malnutrition. In children, the prevalence of a history of malnutrition was 1.9 percent and of severe COVID-19 was 6.0 percent.

Multivariable random intercept logistic regression analysis found that in paediatric patients, age was significantly associated with severe COVID-19 (log odds ratio [OR], –0.099, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], –0.121 to –0.076; p<0.0001). No such effect was reported for malnutrition (p=0.2549).

In adults, both age (log OR, 0.030, 95 percent CI, 0.028–0.031; p<0.0001) and a history of malnutrition (log OR, 1.077, 95 percent CI, 0.558–1.596; p<0.0001) emerged as significant correlates of severe COVID-19.

Notably, in both children (log OR, 0.094, 95 percent CI, 0.012–0.175; p=0.0245) and adults (log OR, –0.014, 95 percent CI, –0.021 to –0.006; p=0.0003), the interaction between age and a history of malnutrition was significantly associated with severe COVID-19.

“There is an association between past diagnoses of malnutrition and severe COVID-19 through a statistical interaction with the age of the patient in both paediatric and adult medicine,” researchers explained.