Objectives:

the aim of the study was to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on enteral nutrition prescription in the Community of Madrid during the first semester of 2020.

Material and methods:

this is a descriptive study of enteral nutrition prescription in the first semester of 2020 and its comparison with the first semester of 2019. We included all the prescriptions in public hospitals of the Community of Madrid as recorded in public electronic databases.

Results:

there was an 8 % increase in the number of enteral nutrition prescriptions in March 2020 when compared with the previous months (p < 0.001). Then, in April and May 2020 we observed a 9 % decrease in enteral nutrition prescriptions (p < 0.001). Total costs in enteral nutrition showed a similar pattern, with an increase in March 2020 (p < 0.001) and a decrease in April and May 2020 (p < 0.001). When analyzing the data by patient age, those above 75 y.o. showed the highest decrease in enteral nutrition prescriptions (33.1 % higher than for those under 75 y.o.) in April and May 2020 (p < 0.001).

Conclusions:

the irruption of COVID-19 had a relevant impact on enteral nutrition prescription, especially among the elderly. Follow-up is needed to assess the long-term consequences of this in nutritional therapy.

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