Background:
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has greatly affected human health, leading to lifestyle changes, through social distancing and isolation at home. Αs a result of globally implemented lockdown policies, problems concerning the potential detrimental COVID-19-related consequences in patients with chronic diseases emerged ^1-3. The objective of the present study is to evaluate dietary and lifestyle changes and health related Quality of Life (QoL) during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

Methods:
Patients with PE that were regularly followed in the Pulmonary Embolism Outpatient Clinic of Respiratory Medicine Department at the University of Thessaly participated in our study. All participants were asked to complete the Short Form 36 (SF-36) questionnaire⁴ and were asked about dietary and lifestyle changes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients were recruited by consecutive sampling.

Results:
We included 22 patients with PE (mean age±SD=62.27±15.03 years, 59.09% males), while 68.18% were non smokers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, 31.81% (n=7) reduced physical activity by 25%, 36.36% increased their body weight by 2-3 kg. Of the participants 9.09% presented a slight increase in alcohol consumption while smoking habit were unaltered. Most of the mean values of the SF-36 subscales were above the normative value except for “physical role functioning” (46.59±86.36), "bodily pain" (46.35±24.93) and "vitality" (44.39±29.28). “Physical functioning” (49.77±42.83) and “general health perceptions” (52.64±25.37) reached the normative value of 50.

Conclusions:
In conclusion, patients with PE exhibit below the average in some subscales of QoL while their dietary habits were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.