Adequacy of nutritional status and dietary intake of adult and elderly patients with American Tegumentary Leishmaniasis.

Background: This cross-sectional study describes the adequacy of nutritional status and food intake in patients with American Tegumentary Leishmaniasis and its relationship with the form of the disease: cutaneous or mucosal. Patients with mucosal have greater nutritional impairment associated with older age and symptoms such as odynophagia, dysphagia, and oropharyngeal lesions, which lead to reduced dietary intake and inadequate intake of micronutrients.

Objective: Patients with American Tegumentary Leishmaniasis often experience malnutrition, weight loss, and dehydration; however, their eating profile and the degree of interference of disease manifestations on food intake is not well understood.