BODY COMPOSITION ASSESSMENT OF ADULTS AND OLDER ADULTS WITH COVID-19: A SCOPING REVIEW
Nutritional status, skeletal muscle mass, body fat, coronavirus disease 2019, hospitalized patient
Introduction: Nutritional status by BMI is directly related to the risk and prognosis of COVID-19 patients. However, the usage of BMI in clinical populations is controversial as it does not reflect obesity at the individual level. A body composition assessment can add more accurate information for nutritional screening of hospitalized patients. Aim: To explore the most frequently used body composition technique in COVID-19 patients and investigate possible associations between low muscularity, higher visceral fat and miosteatosis with worse COVID-19 outcomes through a scoping review. Methods: A scoping review was designed using electronic databases for search strategy and manual search including Embase, PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus and LILACS. The eligibility criteria included retrospective and prospective observational studies in which the body composition was analyzed. Results: 2409 citations were included for the study selection. The observational studies with COVID-19 patients were selected. After reviewing the papers, a total of 41 studies were included in this scoping review. The most frequently used body composition tools included computed tomography (n = 28), bioelectrical impedance (8), ultrasound (4) and sonography (1). There were strong associations between low muscularity as well as higher visceral fat and intramuscular fat and COVID-19 outcomes. Conclusions: Computed tomography, followed by BIA and ultrasound were the most frequently used methods. Combining multiple assessment techniques may afford the investigator/clinician considerable power in examining and characterizing adiposity or low muscle mass.