The Effect of Gastrointestinal Symptoms of Hemodialysis Patients with Chronic Renal Failure on Some Biochemical Parameters and Nutritional Status Gastrointestinal Symptoms of Hemodialysis Patients

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine gastrointestinal symptoms in patients undergoing hemodialysis treatment for chronic renal failure and to evaluate the effect of this condition on nutritional status and serum albumin levels of patients. The study was conducted on 200 chronic renal failure patients (132 male, 68 female) between the ages of 20-88 years old at Baskent University Ankara Hospital Hemodialysis Unit. A questionnaire was applied to patients including demographic and disease information by face to face interview. The nutritional status of the patients was determined by food-frequency questionnaire, a three days 24 hour dietary record and Subjective Global Assessment (SGA). The gastrointestinal symptoms of the patients were evaluated by the Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale (GSRS). Anthropometric measurements were taken and some biochemical parameters were analyzed. The mean age of the patients was 60.7 ± 15.16 years; and the mean duration of patients undergoing hemodialysis was 8.2±7.43 years and in continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis patients was 5.7 ± 6.48 years. The BMI of the patients was 26.0±4.79 kg/m² and 25.6±6.08 kg/m² in males and females, respectively. According to SGA results, it was determined that 4.5% of the patients had severe malnutrition, 14.5% had moderate malnutrition and 81% had good nutrition (p>0.05). In the evaluation of mean gastrointestinal problems of patients; mean score of abdominal pain subscale was 14.9 ± 6.75, mean score of reflux subscale was 10.7 ± 5.96, mean score of indigestion subscale was 23.4 ± 8.95, mean score of constipation subscale was found to be 18.8 ± 12.63, mean score of diarrhoea subscale was found to be 12.7 ± 7.29 and total GSRS score was found to be 80.5 ± 25.00. Therefore, while planning the patients’ diet, it is thought to be imperative to take nutritional-related gastrointestinal symptom factors into consideration to increase the quality of life of the patients and to prolong life span.