Single meal food intake characteristics reliably predict nutrition status and body composition in patients undergoing continuous peritoneal dialysis.

Aim: This study aimed to determine whether single meal food intake characteristics measured via visual analogue scales (VAS) predict appetite and have a clinical impact on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients.

Methods: The nutritional status of 50 continuous ambulatory PD patients (30 men, mean age 44.26 +/- 13.53 years, and 20 women, mean age 48.70 +/- 12.53 years) at a single tertiary referral hospital was evaluated via subjective global assessment and VAS questionnaires. The Spearman correlation coefficient was used to evaluate the linear association between continuous variables, while the two-sample Student's t-test was performed to compare ghrelin levels between the two groups. P-values less than 0.05 were considered to be of statistical significance.

Results: Subjective global assessment was correlated with VAS scores in each single patient. VAS score for fullness sensation was significantly positively correlated with age (r = 0.41, P = 0.02), triceps skin fold (r = 0.46, P = 0.01), waist-hip ratio (r = 0.50, P = 0.005) and fat content (r = 0.37, P = 0.04), and significantly negatively correlated with daily energy (r = -0.36, P = 0.04) and protein intake (r = -0.52, P = 0.003). By contrast, serum ghrelin level and the four VAS scores were not correlated.

Conclusion: Single meal food intake characteristics can reliably estimate nutrition status and predict body composition in patients undergoing continuous PD.