Nutritional assessment and its correlation with anthropometric measurements in hemodialysis patients

One of the most important problems in patients on hemodialysis (HD) is chronic malnutrition. This study is aimed to assess the prevalence of malnutrition using a subjective global assessment (SGA) in HD patients referred to the Valie ASR Hospital, Arak, Iran. In this descriptive analysis study, 190 HD patients were selected with random sampling. SGA and anthropometric and biochemical measurements were assessed in all patients. Data were analyzed with the Chi-square and t-tests and Pearson correlation coefficient. P <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Of the 190 patients studied, 78 patients (41.1%) were male and 112 patients (58.9%) were female. Sixteen patients were detected to have adequate nutritional status (8.4%), 90 (47.4%) had mild malnutrition and 84 patients (44.2%) had moderate malnutrition. We found a significant negative correlation of SGA score with patient's weight (r = -0.147) and patient's body mass index (BMI) (r = -0.238). Also, it correlated significantly with duration of dialysis treatment (years) (r = 0.404). The SGA score showed a significant negative correlation with mid-arm circumference (MAC) (r = - 0.152). No significant correlation was found between SGA score and mid-arm muscle area. Our study showed that >50% of patients on maintenance HD had mild or moderate malnutrition. There was no case of severe malnutrition. Duration of dialysis treatment and some anthropometric indices (weight, BMI and MAC) also showed a significant correlation with SGA score, which are important to determine the nutritional status of HD patients.