Factors associated with the malnutrition inflammation score (MIS) among hemodialysis patients in Dhaka city: a cross-sectional study in tertiary care hospitals.

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a progressive disease that leads to end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Malnutrition increases the risk of mortality among patients with ESRD. This study aimed to determine malnutrition prevalence and associated factors among twice-weekly (n = 94/120) and thrice-weekly (n = 26/120) hemodialysis patients/HDP.

Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted at two tertiary-level public hospitals in Dhaka city using a consecutive sampling technique from April to June 2021. Nutritional status was assessed by Malnutrition Inflammation Score (MIS). Multivariable ordinal logistic regression was performed to determine which socioeconomic, clinical, anthropometric, biochemical, and dietary factors are associated with MIS.

Results: The prevalence of malnutrition was very high among HDP (severe 15.5%, mild/moderate 56.7%) with an average dialysis vintage of 28.7 months. Comorbidities (80.8%) and gastrointestinal symptoms/GIS (68.3%) were ubiquitous, and "dialysis frequencies" were not associated with MIS in bivariate analysis. Multivariable ordinal regression showed that anthropometric factors like mid-upper arm circumference/MUAC (adjusted odds ratio/AOR = 0.978), post-dialysis body mass index/BMI (AOR = 0.957), and biochemical parameters like albumin (AOR = 0.733) and TIBC/total iron binding capacity (AOR = 0.996) negatively ( < .05) associated with MIS. Moreover, having "no GIS" (AOR = 0.672, < .001) was 33.0% less likely to be associated with MIS. Contrarily, as the month of dialysis increases, MIS increases by 22.0% (AOR = 1.22).

Conclusion: Significant associations of clinical, anthropometric, and biochemical characteristics with MIS indicate the importance of routine screening of the nutritional status of patients with CKD to improve health status and prevent protein-energy wasting. The MIS could be a simple, noninvasive tool for testing nutritional status in patients with CKD.