The lifestyle of the population has undergone significant changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which could have influenced alterations in dietary habits and overall well-being among workers. This study aimed to evaluate healthy eating practices and their relationship with the workers’ quality of life and physical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic. This was a cross-sectional investigation involving workers in the city of Curitiba, southern Brazil. The study was conducted through the application of an online questionnaire. The data were evaluated using non-parametric tests and fitting a logistic regression model. A total of 123 workers participated in the study, most of them male (53.2%), aged between 31 and 40 years (42.2%), with a predominance of workers with postgraduate degrees (62.6%, n = 77), and the majority of workers (68.2%, n = 84) were performing their professional activities remotely for at least one day during the week, and 73.2% (n = 90). It was observed that 52.8% had excellent healthy eating practices, and the older their age and the greater the practice of physical activity (time and frequency), the better the workers’ healthy eating practices. When assessing quality of life, the lowest average score for healthy eating practices was in the domain of social relationships. A direct relationship of older age, social relationships, and the practice of physical activity with the best individuals’ healthy eating practices was detected. Considering that remote work continues to be adopted post-pandemic, evaluating the dietary practices, physical activity, and quality of life of workers is necessary to understand this new labour phenomenon.

The current COVID-19 pandemic has generated a series of changes in the daily routines of people, including children and teenagers, in an unprecedented way, which constitutes a global challenge in public health. Social isolation has been a prophylactic measure to prevent the spread of the virus; however, it has generated negative impacts on the physical and emotional health of parents, caregivers, children and teenagers around the world. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effects of confinement caused by the COVID-19 pandemic at the level of nutritional status, dietary and behavioural patterns of elementary school children and teenagers in a small town of Colombia. Anthropometric parameters such as BMI Z-score, waist circumference and waist/height ratio were evaluated in 266 school children and teenagers. A questionnaire with socio-demographic, clinical and lifestyle characteristics and the KIDMED were applied to learn about nutritional aspects. A total of 102 students (38⋅3 %) were classified as having altered nutritional status, being 39 (14⋅7 %) classified as overweight and 36 (13⋅5 %) with obesity. The prevalence of high adherence to the Mediterranean diet was 12 %, 95 % CI (0⋅08, 0⋅16). Overweight was more prevalent in women (26/39, 66⋅7 %; P = 0⋅0439), and obesity was discreetly more frequent in men (19/36, 52⋅7 %; P = 0⋅7193). We observed a worrying nutritional, dietary and behavioural situation in the children and teenagers studied during the confinement associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. This unveils the need to establish strategies and/or public policies in our town that help to promote an adequate biopsychosocial development of the paediatric patient and their family group.

Although increased weight, and particularly obesity, has been associated with a more severe clinical course of COVID-19 and risk of fatality, the course of the illness can lead to prolonged length of stay. Changes in nutritional status and weight loss during hospitalisation are largely reported in some populations, but still not explored in COVID-19 patients. Considering that patients with COVID-19 show an increased inflammatory response, other signs and symptoms, which can lead to weight and muscle loss, should be monitored. The aim of this article was to establish possible connections between COVID-19, prolonged hospitalisation and muscle wasting, as well as to propose nutritional recommendations for the prevention and treatment of cachexia, through a narrative review. Identification of risk and presence of malnutrition should be an early step in general assessment of all patients, with regard to more at-risk categories including older adults and individuals suffering from chronic and acute disease conditions, such as COVID-19. The deterioration of nutritional status, and consequently cachexia, increases the risk of mortality and needs to be treated with attention as other complications. There is, however, little hard evidence of nutritional approaches in assisting COVID-19 treatment or its management including cachexia.

This study aimed to analyse the survival of patients admitted to Brazilian hospitals due to the COVID-19 and estimate prognostic factors. This is a retrospective, multicentre cohort study, based on data from 46 285 hospitalisations for COVID-19 in Brazil. Survival functions were calculated using the Kaplan–Meier's method. The log-rank test compared the survival functions for each variable and from that, hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated, and the proportional hazard model was used in Cox multiple regression. The smallest survival curves were the ones for patients at the age of 68 years or more, black/mixed race, illiterate, living in the countryside, dyspnoea, respiratory distress, influenza-like outbreak, O2 saturation <95%, X-ray change, length of stay in the intensive care unit (ICU), invasive ventilatory support, previous heart disease, pneumopathy, diabetes, Down's syndrome, neurological disease and kidney disease. Better survival was observed in the influenza-like outbreak and in an asthmatic patient. The multiple model for increased risk of death when they were admitted to the ICU HR 1.28, diabetes HR 1.17, neurological disease HR 1.34, kidney disease HR 1.11, heart disease HR 1.14, black or mixed race of HR 1.50, asthma HR 0.71 and pneumopathy HR 1.12. This reinforces the importance of socio-demographic and clinical factors as a prognosis for death.