Clinical, bioelectrical, epidemiological and nutritional characterization of patient with COVID-19

Abstract

Introduction: During the last decades, the world has been exposed to a series of threats by emerging viral outbreaks of different nature, which, when studied in detail, it is possible to understand their real impact, not only in an immediate way, but also in the long term. Objective: To characterize clinical, bioelectrical, epidemiological, and nutritional aspects of COVID-19 patients. Methods: An observational and descriptive study of 312 patients confirmed with COVID-19 was carried out. The following variables were studied: Age group, sex, nutritional status, disease intensity, phase angle, status at discharge and days of disease evolution. The data were obtained from the medical records of the patients. Absolute frequencies and percentages were analyzed for categorical variables and mean and standard deviation for quantitative variables. Results: Mean age was 56.7 years, predominance of patients aged 60 years and over (43.3%), male (70.8%), overweight (50.6%) and slightly affected (58.0%). Obesity (26.4%) and worse evolution were more frequent in the female sex. Likewise, patients with greater intensity of the condition and those who died, showed lower phase angle values. Conclusions: The association between female sex, old age and obesity with a worse evolution of the disease in affected patients is evident. Phase angle is confirmed as the main variable of electrical bioimpedance related to the evolution and mortality of this type of patients.

Keywords

• coronavirus
• sars-cov-2
• covid-19
• impedancia eléctrica
• estado nutricional.