Prevalence and factors associated with the correlation between malnutrition and pain in hemodialysis patients

Malnutrition and pain are common in patients with chronic kidney disease who undergo hemodialysis. Although both pain and malnutrition are associated with increased morbidity and mortality, few studies have explored the correlation between pain and nutritional status. This study aimed to investigate the factors associated with pain intensity in patients undergoing hemodialysis, focusing on the risk of malnutrition. This was a cross-sectional study conducted at a regional dialysis center in a large tertiary hospital. Convenience sampling was used to recruit adult patients who had undergone hemodialysis for more than three months. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to gather sociodemographic and clinical data related to dialysis status, comorbidities, and body mass index (BMI). Pain severity and pain interference with functioning domains of the Brief Pain Index (BPI) were used to assess pain, and the malnutrition inflammation score (MIS) was used to assess nutritional status. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to report the findings. The data were analyzed using the 25th version of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (IBM-SPSS) software. Of the final sample of 230 patients, 63.0% were males and 37.0% were females, with an average age of 58.3 years. Almost one-third of the participants had a BMI within the normal range (33.9%), and nearly one-third had a BMI within the underweight range (33.9%). Slightly more than half had a normal nutritional status or mild malnutrition (54.8%), while just under half had moderate or severe malnutrition (45.2%). The prevalence of pain was 47.0%. At the multivariate level, the severity of pain was associated with malnutrition (p < 0.001). Pain interference with function was associated with marital status (p = 0.045), number of comorbidities (p = 0.012), and malnutrition (p < 0.001). The MIS was positively correlated with both the severity of pain and the interference score. Pain and malnutrition were found to be prevalent in patients undergoing hemodialysis. Pain severity was associated with malnutrition, and pain interference was associated with malnutrition, marital status, and the number of comorbidities. Hemodialysis treatment should follow a patient-tailored approach that addresses pain, nutritional status, and associated chronic conditions. In addition, pain assessment and management should be included in the curriculum of nephrology training programs.