Diet quality and risk and severity of COVID-19: a prospective cohort study 

Merino J, Joshi AD, Nguyen LH, et al. Diet quality and risk and severity of COVID-19: a prospective cohort study Gut Published online first: 6 September 2021. doi: 10.1136 / gutjnl-2021-325353

Commentary

The aim of this study is to investigate poor metabolic health and unhealthy lifestyle, which have been associated with the risk and severity of COVID-19, but for which data on diet are lacking.

The study used data from 592,571 people in the smartphone-based COVID-19 Symptom Study.

Dietary information was collected during the pre-pandemic period using a short food frequency questionnaire, and diet quality was assessed using a healthy plant-based diet score highlighting healthy plant-based foods such as fruits and vegetables.

As a result of this analysis, 31, 815 COVID-19 cases were recorded with a follow-up of 3886,274 persons/month.

Compared to individuals in the lowest quartile of dietary score, higher dietary quality has been shown to be associated with lower risk of COVID-19, severe disease.

This showed that low diet quality was higher than the sum of risks associated with each factor alone in the joint association of increased COVID-19 risk deprivation.

In conclusion, the study showed that those consuming diets featuring healthy plant-based foods were associated with lower risk and severity of COVID-19. And among individuals living in areas with higher socioeconomic deprivation, this association may be evident.