Purpose: To evaluate whether the prognostic nutritional index (PNI) is related to the oxygen therapy requirement at hospital admission and to ascertain the prognostic effect of the PNI and the oxygen therapy requirement as predictors of hospital length of stay in patients with moderate to severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Methods: This is a post-hoc analysis in hospitalized patients with moderate to severe COVID-19. The participants were categorized: (1) non-oxygen therapy (moderate COVID-19 not requiring oxygen therapy); (2) nasal cannula therapy (severe COVID-19 requiring nasal cannula oxygen therapy); and (3) high-flow therapy (severe COVID-19 requiring high-flow oxygen therapy). PNI was calculated for each patient according to the following equation: serum albumin [g/dL] × 10 + total lymphocyte count [per mm3] × 0.005. The participants were categorized into malnutrition (PNI <40), mild malnutrition (PNI 40-45), and non-malnutrition (PNI > 45).
Results: According to PNI, malnutrition was more prevalent in the high-flow therapy group (94.9%; P < 0.001) with significantly lower PNI compared to both groups even after adjusting for the center and C-reactive protein. Patients in the high-flow therapy group [9 days (95% CI 7.2, 10.7), P < 0.001] and malnutrition status [7 days (95% CI 6.6, 7.4), P = 0.016] showed a significant longer hospital length of stay compared to their counterparts. The multivariable Cox proportional hazard models showed significant associations between both oxygen therapy requirement and PNI categories and hospital discharge.
Conclusion: In addition to oxygen therapy requirement, low PNI was associated with longer hospital length of stay. Our findings suggest that PNI could be useful in the assessment of nutritional status related to the prognosis of patients with moderate to severe COVID-19.
Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2 infection; assessment; malnutrition; nutritional status; prognosis; prognostic nutritional index (PNI).
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