European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Background: The immune system defends the host against many harmful microorganisms. The immune system has developed to contain various specialized cell types, signaling molecules, and functional responses to deal with this wide range of threats. In Covid-19 infections immune system is the key component for prevention of the disease. Hospital admission and duration of stay due to covid 19 infection have a considerable physical, financial, and psychological burden for the individual, family, and country. Diet has been shown to have a vital role in boosting one's immunity. Non vegetarian diet is traditionally considered to be immunity boosting as it is rich in protein, vitamins, and micronutrients.      
Aims and objective: To study the effect of dietary pattern on duration of hospital stay in patients with respiratory Covid illness
Material and Methods: This was a double blind retrospective cohort study comprising of 113 patients tested positive in RTPCR for SARS-CoV-2 and admitted at DCH located at super specialty hospital of Jayarogya Group of Hospitals, Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, was studied retrospectively between July 2020 to October 2020. Patients were divided based on diet pattern into Group A (patients following a vegetarian diet; n=70) and Group B (patients following a non-vegetarian diet; n=43). The outcome was measured as the duration of hospital stay and comparison of diet type, age, and gender of patients. All these patients were discharge stable and case files of deaths were excluded. Non vegetarian diet was defined as inclusion of eggs, meet, fish in the routine diet whereas a vegetarian diet was exclusion of these items.   
Result: Out of 113 patients, most (61.94%) had a vegetarian diet, whereas 43 (38.06%) had a non-vegetarian diet. Duration of hospital stay was more in patients in Group A (10.71±5.5 days) than Group B (8.4± 4.7 days), p=0.0302. Hospital stay was longer (11.05 days) in older patients (>50 years) compared to younger patients (≤50 years) (9.2 days) (table 3).  In Group A, hospital stay was longer in those with age >50 years (11.4 days) compared to those with age ≤50 (9.2 days). On the contrary, older patients had shorter hospital lengths (9.9 days) than younger patients (10.09 days) in Group B (p value =     ).
Conclusion: A significantly shorter hospital stay was observed in patients of respiratory covid infection following a  non-vegetarian diet with Covid-19 infection.