Information for professionals supporting people recovering from COVID-19

Providing dietary and nutritional support for COVID-19 recovery

Welcome to the section of the Nutrition and COVID-19 recovery knowledge hub designed for those working with people recovering from COVID-19 infection.

This includes all health and social care professionals and people working in the third sector (voluntary and community organisations, charities, self-help and community groups, social enterprises etc.).

If you work in any of these roles you may be in a position to notice nutritional problems and be a trusted source of information. 

This site will:

  • provide you with tools to deliver high quality nutritional care
  • help you understand when to seek the advice of a nutritional expert
  • provide pages that can be signposted for the public to reference.

The long-term nutritional effects of COVID-19 are generally unknown and some are being studied. Some presented information draw on nutritional impact of serious infections, social isolation and other comorbidities. Please be aware research is limited around dietary advice, nutritional supplements, nutrition support, phytomedicine (herbal medicine), food insecurity (disruption of food intake or eating patterns due to lack of money and other resources) (Gundersen and Ziliak, 2015), quarantine-related behaviour and weight changes (Mechanick et al., 2020).

Please choose from one of the sections below for further information.

Navigation tip: If you are on a desktop right-click on a link and choose 'Open Link in New Tab' to open links in new tabs. On a mobile device you can hold down your finger over a link and choose 'Open in New Tab'.

 

Please choose a section

Identification vector image Identification
 Information on identifying who needs nutritional care

Assessment vector image Assessment
 Information on assessing nutritional needs and setting realistic goals

Advice vector image Advice
 Information on first-line and more advanced dietary advice

Monitoring vector image Monitoring
 Information on monitoring nutritional status and dietary change

COVID-19 virus vector Symptoms
 Information on managing symptoms linked to nutrition

Challenges vector image Challenges
 Information on operational challenges for delivering nutritional care

Contact us

This knowledge hub is constantly being reviewed and updated. We welcome your comments or feedback about it.

Please contact abigail.troncohernandez@plymouth.ac.uk and we will get back to you promptly.

References

Gundersen, C. and Ziliak, J.P. (2015) ‘Food Insecurity And Health Outcomes’, Health Affairs, 34(11), pp. 1830–1839. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.2015.0645.

Mechanick, J.I. et al. (2020) ‘Clinical Nutrition Research and the COVID‐19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review of the ASPEN COVID‐19 Nutrition Taskforce’, Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, p. jpen.2036. doi:10.1002/jpen.2036.