The association between nutrient patterns and hospital stay duration and symptoms in COVID-19 in Iranian patients: cross-sectional study

DOI record: { "DOI": "10.3389/fnut.2025.1542449", "ISSN": [ "2296-861X" ], "URL": "http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2025.1542449", "abstract": "<jats:sec><jats:title>Background</jats:title><jats:p>An excessively reactive immune system results in the cytokine storm COVID-19. A healthy diet is essential to maintain the balance between the immune system and inflammatory and oxidative stress. Associations between single foods and nutrients and COVID-19 have been examined. However, no prior study has examined associations between nutrient patterns and COVID-19. This study assessed the link between nutrient patterns and the COVID-19 severity and length of hospital stay in Iranian adults.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods</jats:title><jats:p>This cross-sectional study included 107 Iranian adults aged 20–60 years, who were admitted to Amir Alam Hospital in Tehran, Iran, due to COVID-19. Data on their symptoms were collected through a demographic questionnaire and verified against their hospital records. Three non-consecutive 24-h dietary recalls were used to collect participants’ food and beverage intake. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to derive nutrient patterns.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Result</jats:title><jats:p>A total of 95 Covid patients with a mean age of 46.2 years were included. Four major dietary patterns were identified using the Scree Plot chart, including high carbohydrate and high minerals pattern; high protein and high vitamins pattern; high fat pattern; and poor nutrient pattern. Adherence to the poor nutrient patterns was associated with a higher number of hospitalization days and lower appetite (<jats:italic>p</jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.05). The poor dietary patterns were associated with an increased likelihood of headache, fever, and respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). Also, headaches were more common with adherence to the high-fat pattern (<jats:italic>p</jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.05).</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion</jats:title><jats:p>The findings of this study show that a poor nutrient pattern is related to longer hospital stays and reduced appetite. It also connected to an increased likelihood of symptoms including headaches, fever, and respiratory distress syndrome. A strong association was found between respiratory distress syndrome, headaches, and a high-fat diet was found. Further studies with prospective designs are needed to better understand and validate these findings.</jats:p></jats:sec>", "alternative-id": [ "10.3389/fnut.2025.1542449" ], "author": [ { "affiliation": [], "family": "Mirzababaei", "given": "Atieh", "sequence": "first" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Shiraseb", "given": "Farideh", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Mohamadi", "given": "Azam", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Mehri Hajmir", "given": "Mahya", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Ebrahimi", "given": "Sara", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Zarrinvafa", "given": "Zeinab", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Kazemian", "given": "Elham", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Mehrvar", "given": "Amir", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Mirzaei", "given": "Khadijeh", "sequence": "additional" } ], "container-title": "Frontiers in Nutrition", "container-title-short": "Front. Nutr.", "content-domain": { "crossmark-restriction": true, "domain": [ "frontiersin.org" ] }, "created": { "date-parts": [ [ 2025, 3, 3 ] ], "date-time": "2025-03-03T05:17:29Z", "timestamp": 1740979049000 }, "deposited": { "date-parts": [ [ 2025, 3, 3 ] ], "date-time": "2025-03-03T05:17:32Z", "timestamp": 1740979052000 }, "indexed": { "date-parts": [ [ 2025, 3, 4 ] ], "date-time": "2025-03-04T05:18:44Z", "timestamp": 1741065524613, "version": "3.38.0" }, "is-referenced-by-count": 0, "issued": { "date-parts": [ [ 2025, 3, 3 ] ] }, "license": [ { "URL": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "content-version": "vor", "delay-in-days": 0, "start": { "date-parts": [ [ 2025, 3, 3 ] ], "date-time": "2025-03-03T00:00:00Z", "timestamp": 1740960000000 } } ], "link": [ { "URL": "https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2025.1542449/full", "content-type": "unspecified", "content-version": "vor", "intended-application": "similarity-checking" } ], "member": "1965", "original-title": [], "prefix": "10.3389", "published": { "date-parts": [ [ 2025, 3, 3 ] ] }, "published-online": { "date-parts": [ [ 2025, 3, 3 ] ] }, "publisher": "Frontiers Media SA", "reference": [ { "DOI": "10.4414/smw.2020.20235", "article-title": "COVID-19 pandemic: palliative care for elderly and frail patients at home and in residential and nursing homes", "author": "Kunz", "doi-asserted-by": "publisher", "first-page": "w20235", "journal-title": "Swiss Med Wkly", "key": "ref1", "volume": "150", "year": "2020" }, { "DOI": "10.4414/smw.2020.20229", "article-title": "COVID-19 pandemic: triage for intensive-care treatment under resource scarcity", "doi-asserted-by": "publisher", "first-page": "w20229", "journal-title": "Swiss Med Wkly", "key": "ref2", "volume": "150", "year": "2020" }, { "DOI": "10.1186/s12889-021-11326-2", "article-title": "Epidemiological characteristics and initial spatiotemporal visualisation of COVID-19 in a major city in the Middle East", "author": "MohammadEbrahimi", "doi-asserted-by": "publisher", "first-page": "1373", "journal-title": "BMC Public Health", "key": "ref3", "volume": "21", "year": "2021" }, { "DOI": "10.1177/10105395211017755", "article-title": "Clustering of COVID-19 symptoms among Iranian patients: the role of preexisting comorbidity on latent class membership", "author": "Moradi-Asl", "doi-asserted-by": "publisher", "first-page": "651", "journal-title": "Asia Pac J Public Health", "key": "ref4", "volume": "33", "year": "2021" }, { "DOI": "10.1186/s12889-023-15336-0", "article-title": "The COVID-19 pandemic’s true death toll in Iran after two years: an interrupted time series analysis of weekly all-cause mortality data", "author": "Ebrahimoghli", "doi-asserted-by": "publisher", "first-page": "442", "journal-title": "BMC Public Health", "key": "ref5", "volume": "23", "year": "2023" }, { "key": "ref6", "year": "2024" }, { "DOI": "10.3390/nu13061924", "article-title": "Nutrition in the actual COVID-19 pandemic. 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