Background: Malnutrition is a common problem in patients with end stage renal disease (ESRD) undergoing hemodialysis that increases morbidity and mortality rate in them. Subjective global assessment (SGA) is a tool used by health care providers to assess nutritional status in these patients. In addition, biochemical parameters are used to assess the nutritional status in all people.
Objectives: In this study, we evaluated the nutritional status of patients with ESRD undergoing hemodialysis using SGA and assessed probable association between biochemical parameters and malnutrition in this population.
Patients and methods: Using SGA, the nutritional status of 105 patients (60 males and 45 females) of two dialysis centers in Sari, Iran, was evaluated during years 2007-2008. It is a semiquantitative scoring system that has seven variables derived from medical history and physical examination. The biochemical parameters including hemoglobin, albumin, cholesterol, BUN, and creatinine were also measured.
Results: Among 105 patients, 98 (93.33%) patients consisted of 56 males and 42 females had mild to moderate malnutrition and 3 (2.86%) women had severe malnutrition. In addition, all of the patients without malnutrition were men. We found significant association between patient's sex and the SGA score (P = 0.03) but no significant association was seen between age and duration of hemodialysis with SGA score. In addition, we did not find significant association between the measured biochemical parameters and malnutrition.
Conclusions: According to high prevalence of malnutrition in our patients with ESRD undergoing hemodialysis, periodic assessment of nutritional status is necessary in them. Meanwhile we found SGA as the best tool to assess nutritional status in patients with ESRD undergoing hemodialysis, because it can recognize various degrees of malnutrition that may remain undetected by a single laboratory assessment.
Keywords: Biological Markers; Kidney Failure, Chronic; Malnutrition; Renal Dialysis.