Unhealthy Food Consumption Is Associated with Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 in Brazilian Elderly People

DOI record: { "DOI": "10.3390/idr17020025", "ISSN": [ "2036-7449" ], "URL": "http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/idr17020025", "abstract": "<jats:p>Background/Objectives: The factors associated with post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) are not yet fully understood in developing countries. Our objective was to investigate the relationship between food consumption and the occurrence of PASC in Brazilian elderly people. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 1322 elderly people aged 60 or over, infected with SARS-CoV-2 in 2020, living in the state of Roraima in Brazil. Using the Brazilian National Food and Nutrition Surveillance System (SISVAN, in Portuguese) tool, food consumption markers were evaluated. The persistence of post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 was assessed three months after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Poisson regression with robust variance was performed to estimate the prevalence ratio (PR) with a 95% confidence interval (95% CI). Results: Fruit consumption [PR 0.92; 95% CI: 0.85–0.99] was associated with a lower occurrence of PASC, with a significant interaction in individuals aged 60 to 69 years old, not hospitalized, and those without chronic kidney disease. In addition, the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages [PR 1.23; 95% CI: 1.12–1.35], sandwich cookies, sweets, and treats [PR 1.12; 95% CI 1.03–1.22] was positively associated with the occurrence of PASC in the elderly people, with a significant interaction in individuals living in the capital and without hypercholesterolemia. Conclusions: Unhealthy food consumption was associated with PASC in Brazilian elderly people. An improvement in the diet quality of elderly people is necessary to minimize health complications in PASC.</jats:p>", "alternative-id": [ "idr17020025" ], "author": [ { "ORCID": "https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7360-1785", "affiliation": [ { "name": "Department of Nutrition and Health, Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV), Viçosa 36570-900, MG, Brazil" } ], "authenticated-orcid": false, "family": "Ribeiro", "given": "Guilherme José Silva", "sequence": "first" }, { "affiliation": [ { "name": "Department of Nutrition and Health, Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV), Viçosa 36570-900, MG, Brazil" } ], "family": "Morais", "given": "Rafaela Nogueira Gomes de", "sequence": "additional" }, { "ORCID": "https://orcid.org/0009-0005-2612-3644", "affiliation": [ { "name": "Department of Nutrition and Health, Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV), Viçosa 36570-900, MG, Brazil" } ], "authenticated-orcid": false, "family": "Abimbola", "given": "Olufemi Gabriel", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [ { "name": "Department of Nutrition and Health, Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV), Viçosa 36570-900, MG, Brazil" } ], "family": "Dias", "given": "Nalva de Paula", "sequence": "additional" }, { "ORCID": "https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1932-6126", "affiliation": [ { "name": "Department of Nutrition and Health, Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV), Viçosa 36570-900, MG, Brazil" } ], "authenticated-orcid": false, "family": "Filgueiras", "given": "Mariana De Santis", "sequence": "additional" }, { "ORCID": "https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7931-3987", "affiliation": [ { "name": "Health Sciences Center, Universidade Estadual de Roraima (UERR), Boa Vista 69306-530, RR, Brazil" } ], "authenticated-orcid": false, "family": "Pinto", "given": "André de Araújo", "sequence": "additional" }, { "ORCID": "https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3616-5096", "affiliation": [ { "name": "Department of Nutrition and Health, Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV), Viçosa 36570-900, MG, Brazil" } ], "authenticated-orcid": false, "family": "Novaes", "given": "Juliana Farias de", "sequence": "additional" } ], "container-title": "Infectious Disease Reports", "container-title-short": "Infectious Disease Reports", "content-domain": { "crossmark-restriction": false, "domain": [] }, "created": { "date-parts": [ [ 2025, 3, 13 ] ], "date-time": "2025-03-13T10:53:00Z", "timestamp": 1741863180000 }, "deposited": { "date-parts": [ [ 2025, 3, 13 ] ], "date-time": "2025-03-13T13:05:18Z", "timestamp": 1741871118000 }, "indexed": { "date-parts": [ [ 2025, 3, 14 ] ], "date-time": "2025-03-14T04:20:31Z", "timestamp": 1741926031697, "version": "3.38.0" }, "is-referenced-by-count": 0, "issue": "2", "issued": { "date-parts": [ [ 2025, 3, 13 ] ] }, "journal-issue": { "issue": "2", "published-online": { "date-parts": [ [ 2025, 4 ] ] } }, "language": "en", "license": [ { "URL": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "content-version": "vor", "delay-in-days": 0, "start": { "date-parts": [ [ 2025, 3, 13 ] ], "date-time": "2025-03-13T00:00:00Z", "timestamp": 1741824000000 } } ], "link": [ { "URL": "https://www.mdpi.com/2036-7449/17/2/25/pdf", "content-type": "unspecified", "content-version": "vor", "intended-application": "similarity-checking" } ], "member": "1968", "original-title": [], "page": "25", "prefix": "10.3390", "published": { "date-parts": [ [ 2025, 3, 13 ] ] }, "published-online": { "date-parts": [ [ 2025, 3, 13 ] ] }, "publisher": "MDPI AG", "reference": [ { "DOI": "10.1038/s41591-021-01292-y", "article-title": "Attributes and Predictors of Long COVID", "author": "Sudre", "doi-asserted-by": "crossref", "first-page": "626", "journal-title": "Nat. 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