Body mass index as the main predictor for length of stay in COVID-19 patients with mild and moderate symptoms: a cross-sectional study in
COVID-19 emergency hospital in Indonesia

Body mass index as the main predictor for length of stay in COVID-19 patients with mild and moderate symptoms: a cross-sectional study in
COVID-19 emergency hospital in Indonesia

covid-19, length of stay, nutritional status, obesity, predictive model

Introduction: COVID-19 emerged as a novel global health crisis. While it has since been downgraded from its status
as a public health emergency of international concern, the virus persists as a global health challenge. Thus,
understanding the factors affecting length of stay (LoS) is pivotal to be considered in hospital capacity planning.
Meanwhile, increasing evidence shows that obesity is one of the most common conditions recently associated with
COVID-19. This study was aimed to analyze the predictors of LoS in COVID-19 patients based on nutritional status and
patient characteristics data.
Methods: Participants of this study were the COVID-19 patients with mild to moderate symptoms who registered in
COVID-19 Emergency Hospital, East Java, Indonesia. This study involved 2850 patients extracted from medical
records for further analysis. Body mass index (BMI) was generated following the standard formula measured on the
first day of hospitalization. LoS was determined by the number of days of hospitalization. The Chi-square automatic
interaction detection (CHAID) algorithm was employed for model building.
Results: Most participants were overweight (34.6%) and obese (17.2%). Only a few participants were hospitalized
with comorbidities such as hypertension (11.6%) and diabetes mellitus (4.1%). The predictive model of LoS indicated
that BMI was the main predictor of COVID-19 LoS, with higher BMI showed to prolong the LoS of mild to moderate
symptoms patients. Other than BMI, gender and symptoms were also indicated as COVID-19 LoS predictors.
Conclusions: Nutritional status is one of the predictors of LoS in COVID-19 patients. Having higher BMI tends to
prolong the LoS, especially in male and having fever. LOS was also seen among those with lower BMI less than 18.5,
in patients who had cold and flu.

Siti Rahayu Nadhiroh1

* , Anisa Lailatul Fitria1

, Armedy Ronny Hasugian2

, Erwin Astha

Triyono3

, Nono Tri Nugroho4

, Alfadhila Khairil Sinatrya5

, and Hazreen B Abdul Majid6

http://dx.doi.org/10.20473/jn.v19i2.53973

22 May 2024

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