Introduction: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. It can manifest as an asymptomatic infection or severe pneumonia that predisposes to persistent stress and catabolism with systemic complications that affect body composition. However, the evidence about the impact of mechanical ventilation (MV) on body composition is insufficient.

Aims and objective: To assess the body composition in post-COVID patients who required MV. We hypothesize that subjects with MV had a worse body composition compared without MV.

Methods: In a cross-sectional study, 1094 patients with post-COVID-19 were included. The sociodemographic-clinical, body composition and muscle functionality variables were analyzed. The sample was divided into two groups with and without VM. Categorical variables were presented in frequency and percentage, and the continuous variables in mean and standard deviation.

Results: The group without MV had a higher prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (5.49% vs 1.47%, p<0.001), cystic fibrosis (1.67% vs 0.4%, p=0.03), and diabetes mellitus (34.61% vs 28.17, p=0.02) compared to the group with MV. Subjects with MV had a higher impedance index (0.81 ± 0.05 vs 0.79 ± 0.04, p<0.001), less Handgrip strength (22.52 ± 9.56 vs 25.86 ± 10, p<0.001), and phase angle (5.85 ± 1.72 vs 6.39 ± p<0.001) compared to the group without MV.

Conclusions: Patients who require MV have a decrease in muscle and cell mass functionality.