Beneficial role of healthy eating Index-2015 score & physical activity on COVID-19 outcomes
Mona A Hegazy, Marwa M Fouad, Samah Ahmed Abd Elshafy, Dalia Abdelfatah, Rania M Lithy, Ahmed Abdelghani, Omar Ahmed Ashoush
BMC Nutrition, doi:10.1186/s40795-023-00727-8
Background Nutritional status and physical activity are essential to maintain a strong immune system. No definite pharmacological strategies for Coronavirus disease 2019 treatment are presently available, so natural enhancement of the immune system is in need. Our goal was to assess the correlation of healthy diet and physical activity on COVID-19 disease outcome. Methods This cohort study was conducted on 68 adult patients who contracted mild (38) or moderate [30] cases of COVID-19, recruited via a convenience sampling technique from the outpatient clinic, Kasr Al-Aini Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University Hospital. Patients' Healthy Eating Index (HEI) and degree of physical activity as measured by the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire were evaluated and linked with several inflammatory markers.
Results Most of patients with mild COVID-19 patients (92.1%) were physically active, compared to only 50% of moderate COVID-19. The total Metabolic Equivalent Task-min/week was positively correlated with the lymphocyte percentage. The median total HEI score was significantly higher in the patients with mild COVID-19 than with moderate COVID. Significant positive correlations observed among the lymphocyte count and total HEI-2015. There was approximately a 64% reduction in the probability of acquiring moderate COVID-19 illness for each unit rise in The HEI.
Conclusion Healthier nutrition and Physical activity correlated with reduced COVID-19 disease severity.
Authors' contributions All authors contributed to the study's conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by [MH, MF, SA, RL, DA, AA, OA]. The first draft of the manuscript was written by [MH, MF] and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participate The study was approved by Research Ethics Committee, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University (REC n-86-2020).
Informed consent Informed consent was obtained from all subjects. All methods were carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations.
Consent for publication Not applicable.
Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests.
Publisher's Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
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