Evaluation of gastrointestinal symptoms, quality of life, and hypoalbuminemia in hemodialysis patients with chronic renal failure

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 between December 2018 and February 2019. 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), and the quality of the patients was assessed by SF-36 questionnaire. 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). Physical and mental health summary score points of female patients receiving hemodialysis treatment (HD) were higher than that of males (p>0.05). The hematological and biochemical findings of the patients were compared with reference values; serum VLDL-cholesterol, creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, phosphorus, serum C-reactive protein levels were high; Serum hemoglobin and hematocrit levels were found to be low. In the evaluation of mean daily energy and protein intake in the patients' diet; the energy intake levels of 92.5% and the protein intake levels of 73% were insufficient. According to the recommendations of NKF and ESPEN, it was found that dietary intake of niacin, vitamin B_6, folate, potassium and magnesium were not sufficient in all patients. In addition, dietary intake of riboflavin and zinc in male patients was insufficient and daily intake of iron was insufficient in female patients (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. As dietary fibre intake increased, gastrointestinal problems were found to be significantly increased in patients (p<0.05). According to the results of the patients SGA; the group with severe malnutrition had the highest Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale score (p> 0.05). Physical health summary score of the male patients receiving hemodialysis treatment was 57.8 ± 27.24, mental health summary score was 67.6 ± 26.58; the physical health summary score of the female patients was 58.8 ± 24.10, the mental health summary score was 69.5 ± 23.48 and there was no statistically significant difference between the gender and quality (p>0.05). It was determined that there is a statistically positive relationship between physical health summary score and diet energy and dietary protein and between mental health status and diet energy and dietary protein (p<0.05). A positive relationship was found between GSRS and physical health summary score and mental health summary score; however, this was not statistically significant (p>0.05). 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.