Monitoring of nutritional state is important particularly in those who had more severe COVID-19 infection and hospitalisation, live with Long Covid or have a complex commorbidity.
Strategies to ensure nutrition issues are identified and monitored
Health care professionals can:
- assess the patient’s abilities and expectations (e.g. how they can address their goals and what resources they have in place to achieve them) from health services
- involve other professionals such as social prescribers, dietetic assistants, healthcare assistants, and volunteers to support monitoring
- signpost to support groups in the community or other community organisations
- encourage patients to join relevant social media support groups, use apps that provide prompts and incentives to increase adherence, and actively involve their family
- assess the patient's ability to self-monitor and encourage them to do so. Explain that keeping a record, a user-friendly app or diary to track symptom fluctuations helps reach a decision on how to manage the symptoms
How self-monitoring can help
Active involvement of patients is empowering and their involvement with monitoring is necessary. Self-monitoring is particularly important where infection control measures prevent face-to-face meetings.
There may be situations where the patient does not wish to engage, or is unable to do so until they receive some psychological support to put coping strategies in place. Signpost to available resources and services. Watching the Psychological wellbeing and communication with healthcare professionals video with Chandanee Kotecha, our psychologist, on our Nutrition and COVID-19 Recovery talks page may help.
Self-monitoring by the patient can:
- ensure symptoms are monitored regardless of care setting
- ensure test results are fed back to medical records
- ensure an approach based on the patient's specific circumstances and symptoms can be used
- track adherence with dietary changes or other symptom management techniques