Abstract
Background:COVID-19pandemic has beenchallengingfor health services and systems around the world, including Peru. A viable alternativeinthe telemedicine field to guaranteepatientnutritional care is telenutrition.Telenutrition involves the interactive use of electronic information and telecommunications technologies to implement the nutrition care process with patients at a remote location.Information regarding the experience with this methodology and its potential effect on patients' nutritional goals, does not exist inPeru. The aim of the study was to report the effect of the evaluation type (telenutrition vs.in-person) on anthropometric parameters weight, body mass index(BMI), waist circumference(WC)and relative fat mass(RFM) in overweight and obese adultpatients. Methods:Thisretrospective study included 100 eligiblepatientsin asinglenutritional center,fromJanuary2019 toMarch2021. Results:There was a significant differenceinweight,BMI,WCandRFMatthe end of the three-monthfollow-upperiod,inboth evaluation modalities.Patientson thetelenutritiongrouphadameandecrease of 6.80±4.87 cmin their WC,whereas themeandifferenceobserved for the in-persongroupwas 6.74±4.55 cm. There were no statistically significant differencesinthe changesofany anthropometric parameterswhen comparingboth systems.Reductions wereobservedinweight (5.93±3.88 kg vs.4.92±3.29 kg),BMI(2.23±1.39kg/ m2vs.1.83±1.23kg/ m2),WC(6.80±4.87 cm vs.6.74±4.55 cm) and RFM (2.43±1.78 vs.2.63±1.73) intelenutrition and in-person evaluation,respectively. Conclusions:Telenutrition may be regarded as an alternative to in-person evaluation offering anthropometric changes and nutritional goals similar to those reported throughthein-person modality,in overweight and obese adult people.
Highlights
Clinical practice has gone through adaptative processes during the COVID-19 pandemic due to isolation and social distancing policies to reduce virus transmission
Mean baseline body mass index (BMI) was in the obesity range (31.91 Æ 5.53 and 30.36 Æ 4.35 kg/m2 for telenutrition and in-person group respectively), while the mean final BMI was in the overweight range (29.68 Æ 5.02 and 28.53 Æ 4.12 kg/m2 for telenutrition and in-person group respectively) (Table 1)
Significant differences were observed in the mean baseline relative fat mass (RFM) (41.03 Æ 5.30 vs. 37.85 Æ 6.53) and mean three-month follow-up RFM (38.60 Æ 5.53 vs 35.23 Æ 6.73), between the assessment groups (Table 1)
Summary
Clinical practice has gone through adaptative processes during the COVID-19 pandemic due to isolation and social distancing policies to reduce virus transmission. Whereas telenutrition is defined as a modality of Telehealth that provides an opportunity for a registered dietitian nutritionist to implement patients’ nutritional care remotely.[3]. Studies in Western China have shown that telemedicine practices are feasible, acceptable, effective and improves health care outcomes,[4] by providing the healthcare worker with information about the patient’s surroundings and how homecare is maintained. Telenutrition involves the interactive use of electronic information and telecommunications technologies to implement the nutrition care process with patients at a remote location. The aim of the study was to report the effect of the evaluation type (telenutrition vs in-person) on anthropometric parameters weight, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and relative fat mass (RFM) in overweight and obese adult patients. Conclusions: Telenutrition may be regarded as an alternative to in-person evaluation offering
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