Inspired by patients and professionals
At the start of the pandemic the British Dietetic Association asked us to bring together a general agreement on the best way to nutritionally care for people who had COVID-19 infection.
Our work involved collating published research and guidelines, finding out what was happening on the frontline of healthcare, and talking to patients and healthcare professionals about their experiences.
This knowledge hub has been inspired by the professionals and patients we spoke to about the nutritional care following COVID-19 infection.
Why a knowledge hub?
The purpose of the expert panels was to form a consensus on the nutritional care for people recovering from COVID-19 infection.
The panels produced many consensus statements, and the statements listed here provide the rationale for developing this knowledge hub:
- A resource is required which aims to provide evidence on nutritional care to support COVID-19 recovery for patients and healthcare professionals.
- The required resource needs to map out information about what is proven to be safe and recommended for nutritional care following COVID-19 infection. Also, to translate the evidence so it is suitable for a patient-centred care.
- There are a wide range of symptoms which occur during on-going or long COVID-19 stages. Many of these are affected or influenced by diet, which highlights the importance of nutritional care.
- All healthcare practitioners, particularly those seeing long COVID-19 patients, should apply national protocols and guidelines in a coordinated way.
- Other staff (non-dietitians) involved in the care of patients with COVID-19 need to be trained in the foundations of nutrition and diet to enable them to use nutritional strategies to support COVID-19 recovery.
- Healthcare practitioners, regardless of speciality, need to recognise diet as an influencing factor for COVID-19 recovery and to signpost, treat and refer accordingly.
Each section in this knowledge hub will start with an introduction or/and the information we have collated under relevant subheadings. This includes scientific evidence and useful resources from other organisations relevant to aspects of nutritional care. Some words or phrases have hyperlinks to related sections where you can find more information. Sections will end with the consensus statements produced by our expert panels relevant to that section. References are also listed at the end of each section.
We then provide the information we have collated under relevant subheadings. This includes scientific evidence and useful resources from other organisations relevant to aspects of nutritional care. Some words or phrases have hyperlinks to related sections where you can find more information. References are listed at the end of each section.
Meet the team
The knowledge hub is brought to you by a team of nutrition and diet experts from across the UK.
We have been working together to make information available to healthcare professionals and the public about the best practice in nutritional care for people with COVID-19 infection or its effects.
