PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Parastouei, Karim
AU  - Shokooee Jud, S
AU  - Sepandi, M
AU  - Abbaszadeh, S
AU  - Samadi, M
AU  - Meftahi, GH
AU  - Taghdir, M
TI  - Adherence to Healthy Eating Index-2015 and severity of disease in hospitalised military patients with COVID-19: a cross sectional study
AID  - 10.1136/military-2022-002173
DP  - 2024 Jun 01
TA  - BMJ Military Health
PG  - 237--241
VI  - 170
IP  - 3
4099  - http://militaryhealth.bmj.com/content/170/3/237.short
4100  - http://militaryhealth.bmj.com/content/170/3/237.full
SO  - BMJ Mil Health2024 Jun 01; 170
AB  - Introduction Proper nutrition can play an important role in preventing and improving disease progression in patients with COVID-19. The Healthy Eating Index-2015 (HEI-2015) is one of the most common measures used to assess overall nutritional quality. This research aimed to identify the relationship between the HEI-2015 score and disease severity in hospitalised military patients with COVID-19.Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted in 295 hospitalised military patients (retired military and military reserve) with COVID-19. A validated food frequency questionnaire was used to assess food intake. To evaluate the quality of the diet, the HEI-2015 score was calculated. A multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to measure the association between HEI-2015 scores and disease severity (intensive care unit (ICU) admission and length of hospital stay greater than 4 days) in hospitalised military patients with COVID-19.Results The mean HEI-2015 score was significantly higher in non-ICU patients than in ICU patients (58.39±15.02 vs 53.54±15.65, p=0.01). After adjusting for possible confounding factors including age, sex, comorbidities, calorie intake, body mass index and physical activity, adherence to HEI-2015 inversely related to ICU admission (OR 0.98; 95% CI 0.95 to 1.00) and length of hospital stay of more than 4 days (OR 0.99; 95% CI 0.97 to 1.00) in hospitalised military patients with COVID-19, although statistically not significant.Conclusions According to the results of the study, adherence to HEI-2015 inversely related to both ICU admission and length of hospital stay in hospitalised military patients with COVID-19, although it was not statistically significant.Data are available on reasonable request.