{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T10:18:02Z","timestamp":1785406682115,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"14","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,18]],"date-time":"2026-07-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1784332800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Victor Babe\u0219 University of Medicine and Pharmacy Timi\u0219oara"},{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/00afdp487","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JCM"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background\/Objectives: Post-COVID follow-up may provide an opportunity to reassess persistent and modifiable cardiometabolic risk. We characterized six-month cardiometabolic and vascular trajectories after COVID-19 hospitalization and explored associations with routinely documented dietary counseling and omega-3 recommendations. Methods: This single-center retrospective longitudinal cohort included 238 adults hospitalized with COVID-19 between March 2020 and December 2024. Patients were classified according to recorded post-discharge management as usual care (n = 64), dietary management (n = 60), omega-3 supplementation (n = 59), or combined management (n = 55). Outcomes were assessed at the index visit and at visits labeled approximately three and six months later. Longitudinal changes were estimated using generalized estimating equations; six-month associations were evaluated using baseline-adjusted ANCOVA with robust standard errors and Benjamini\u2013Hochberg correction. Results: Mean age was 54.0 \u00b1 10.6 years, 54.6% were women, 82.4% had hypertension, 40.8% had diabetes, and mean body mass index was 33.8 \u00b1 4.6 kg\/m2. At six months, endpoint-specific data were available for 182 participants for blood pressure, total cholesterol, triglycerides, and HDL-C; 180 for waist circumference; 179 for SCORE; 177 for LDL-C and bilateral carotid IMT analyses; 173 for HOMA-IR; and 164 for IL-6. Across the cohort, systolic and diastolic blood pressure decreased by 7.91 and 4.75 mmHg; several lipid, anthropometric, and insulin-resistance markers also improved. No omnibus group-by-time interaction was significant. After false-discovery-rate correction, only higher six-month HDL-C in the dietary and combined-management groups versus usual care remained statistically significant; all other between-group findings were nonsignificant after correction. Conclusions: Several cardiometabolic risk markers improved during follow-up, but no recorded management category showed consistent trajectory-level superiority. Because intervention content and adherence, time-updated medication use, acute COVID-19 severity, and lifestyle changes were not captured, the comparative findings are exploratory and noncausal. The isolated HDL-C associations should not be interpreted as evidence of cardiovascular benefit. No cardiac biomarkers, echocardiographic measures, incident heart failure, or cardiovascular events were assessed.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/jcm15145647","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,20]],"date-time":"2026-07-20T07:54:13Z","timestamp":1784534053000},"page":"5647","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Six-Month Cardiometabolic and Vascular Trajectories After COVID-19 Hospitalization: Exploratory Associations with Recorded Dietary and Omega-3 Management"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0003-7868-9266","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Cristiana Adina","family":"Avram","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine I, \u201cVictor Babe\u0219\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Timi\u0219oara, Eftimie Murgu Square 2, 300041 Timi\u0219oara, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Maria","family":"Rada","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cardiology, \u201cVictor Babe\u0219\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Timi\u0219oara, Eftimie Murgu Square 2, 300041 Timi\u0219oara, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0006-6025-5998","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ana-Maria","family":"Pah","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cardiology, \u201cVictor Babe\u0219\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Timi\u0219oara, Eftimie Murgu Square 2, 300041 Timi\u0219oara, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Gheorghe","family":"Stoichescu-Hogea","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cardiology, \u201cVictor Babe\u0219\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Timi\u0219oara, Eftimie Murgu Square 2, 300041 Timi\u0219oara, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0009-4951-1702","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Diana-Maria","family":"Mateescu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Infectious Diseases, Clinical Hospital CF Timi\u0219oara, 1 G\u0103rii Street, 300166 Timi\u0219oara, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ioana","family":"Cotet","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Doctoral School, Faculty of Medicine, \u201cVictor Babe\u0219\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Timi\u0219oara, Eftimie Murgu Square 2, 300041 Timi\u0219oara, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0005-3870-6986","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Claudia Raluca Balasa","family":"Virzob","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical Nursing, \u201cVictor Babe\u0219\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Timi\u0219oara, Eftimie Murgu Square 2, 300041 Timi\u0219oara, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Dan Alexandru","family":"Surducan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Functional Sciences, Discipline of Public Health, Center for Translational Research and Systems Medicine, \u201cVictor Babe\u0219\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Timi\u0219oara, Eftimie Murgu Square 2, 300041 Timi\u0219oara, Romania"},{"name":"Centre for Translational Research and Systems Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, \u201cVictor Babe\u0219\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Timi\u0219oara, Eftimie Murgu Square 2, 300041 Timi\u0219oara, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Abdeldayem Emad","family":"Mahmoud","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Family Medicine, \u201cVictor Babe\u0219\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Timi\u0219oara, Eftimie Murgu Square 2, 300041 Timi\u0219oara, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Claudiu","family":"Avram","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department XVI\u2014Balneology, Medical Rehabilitation and Rheumatology, \u201cVictor Babe\u0219\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Timi\u0219oara, Eftimie Murgu Square 2, 300041 Timi\u0219oara, Romania"},{"name":"Transdisciplinary Research Center for Medical Rehabilitation, Balneology and Rheumatology (CTRMBR), \u201cVictor Babe\u0219\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Timi\u0219oara, Eftimie Murgu Square 2, 300041 Timi\u0219oara, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Maria-Laura","family":"Craciun","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cardiology, \u201cVictor Babe\u0219\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Timi\u0219oara, Eftimie Murgu Square 2, 300041 Timi\u0219oara, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"583","DOI":"10.1038\/s41591-022-01689-3","article-title":"Long-term cardiovascular outcomes of COVID-19","volume":"28","author":"Xie","year":"2022","journal-title":"Nat. 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