Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic and Lockdown Measures on the Nutrition Plan Service Cohort

Objective: This study analyses the patients factors can influence the attitude to follow or not the therapeutic weight-loss plan after national lockdown measures adopted from March 2020 to May 2020. Materials and Methods: Patients that visited a private nutritional center in March 2020 were included in this retrospective observational study. All relevant characteristics were noted. In May 2020, patients who did not attend the follow-up visit were labeled as abandoned . Variation in Body Mass Index (BMI) was noted in the second visit. Univariate logistic regression was performed to test the influence on dependent variables (lost follow-up). Odds Ratio (OR) was calculated. According to BMI distribution, we performed a Student T-test (α= 0.05) or Wilcoxon test (α= 0.05) to test BMI variation in patients that attended the follow-up visit. A P-value 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Our population consisted of 77 patients, and 26 patients (33.8%, CI95% 23.4-45.4%) were labelled as abandoned . Age≥ 54 years old (OR= 8.9048, CI95%:1.888-41.9822, P-value= 0.0057) and suffering from hypertension (OR= 4.8706, CI95%:1.4284-16.6076, Pvalue= 0.0114) were factors associated with the abandon follow-up visits. Wilcoxon test for BMI variation resulted statistically significant (May BMI 29.5 kg/m² vs March BMI 29.4 kg/m², Pvalue= 0.0094). Conclusion: Age and hypertension are related to the risk of abandoning healthcare services after ending the national lockdown. The losing follow-up phenomenon could worsen clinical conditions and reduce life expectancy. An increase in BMI during lockdown should be interpreted as a personal difficulty in complying with therapeutic prescriptions.