Evaluation of nutritional status with different methods in geriatric hemodialysis patients: impact of gender.

Purpose: This study investigated the frequency of malnutrition in geriatric hemodialysis patients according to biochemical, anthropometric, bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), modified quantitative subjective global assessment (MQSGA), and geriatric nutritional risk index (GNRI) methods, and the effect of gender on these different parameters.

Methods: A total of 160 chronic hemodialysis patients (older than 65 years old) were included in this study. There were 82 males (51.2 %) and mean age was 72.8 ± 6.1 years. Nutritional status of patients was evaluated by using serum albumin, body mass index (BMI), triceps skinfold (TSF), mid-arm circumference (MAC), mid-arm muscle circumference (MAMC), calf circumference (CC), BIA, MQSGA, and GNRI.

Results: The prevalence of malnutrition according to the aforementioned methods were as following: MAC 62.5 %, MQSGA 60 %, MAMC 50 %, CC 43.1 %, TSF 39.4 %, body fat percentage 33.8 %, albumin 29.1 %, GNRI 15 %, and BMI 8 %. While malnutrition was found to be more prevalent among women according to MQSGA, TSF, and body fat percentage (p = 0.008, p < 0.001, p = 0.042, respectively), it was more frequent in men when we used MAC and MAMC (p = 0.012, p < 0.001, respectively).

Conclusions: Our data indicated that while there was a difference in malnutrition prevalence between female and male geriatric hemodialysis patients according to MQSGA, TSF, MAC, and body fat percentage, there was no difference between genders in terms of malnutrition prevalence according to GNRI, albumin, BMI, and CC.