As a person working in health and social care it is important to understand who needs nutritional care while recovering from COVID-19 and how to identify those needing it. Nutrition screening alongside clinical judgement helps to identify those people at nutritional risk.
These page outline how to identify nutrition-related risks during and after COVID-19, including key signs of malnutrition, factors that increase vulnerability, and simple screening approaches that professionals can use to determine when further nutritional assessment or intervention is needed.
Nutrition screening
Nutrition screening is the first step to identify people who may be at nutritional risk. This includes identifying people who are underweight, overweight or at risk of malnutrition.
Clinical judgement
Screening tools are a guide and do not replace clinical judgement, which should consider several factors about the individual.
Screening different patient groups
Recommendations for first contact and patients with overweight, obesity, malnutrition, frailty or sarcopenia, and hospitalised patients, outpatients and care homes.
Next steps after screening
Once you have identified risk of malnutrition, an appropriate nutrition care plan should be provided and documented.
Post-COVID syndrome
Post-COVID syndrome is also called Long Covid, chronic Covid or post-acute Covid. Patient groups may refer to themselves as ‘long haulers’.
Additional references
Gem COVID (2020) ‘Post-COVID-19 global health strategies: the need for an interdisciplinary approach’, Aging Clinical and Experimental Research, pp. 1–8. doi:10.1007/s40520-020-01616-x.
NIHR, E. (2021) Living with COVID-19 - webinars - Informative and accessible health and care research. Available at: https://evidence.nihr.ac.uk/themedreview/living-with-covid19-webinars/?source=chainmail (Accessed: 26 April 2021).
Zabetakis, I. et al. (2020) ‘COVID-19: The Inflammation Link and the Role of Nutrition in Potential Mitigation’, Nutrients, 12(5), p. 1466. doi:10.3390/nu12051466.