Association of depression with malnutrition in hemodialysis patients

Chronic renal failure (CKD) is a progressive and irreversible disease that in the final stages (ESRD), the person forever needs kidney replacement therapy such as hemodialysis. Protein-energy malnutrition is very common among hemodialysis patients and depression is also very common in these patients. This study was designed to determine the relationship between depression and malnutrition in patients undergoing hemodialysis. In this study, the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale- 21 Items (DASS-21) questionnaire was used to determine depression and Subjective Global Assessment (SGA), Malnutrition Inflammation Score (MIS), and Dialysis Malnutrition Score (DMS) questionnaires were used to determine malnutrition. Demographic, anthropometric, biochemical, and clinical indicators were also examined. The study involved 100 patients (59 men and 41 women). The mean age of participants was 62.12 ± 13.22. According to the DASS-21 questionnaire, 59% of patients had depression. Also, 23%, 25%, and 23% of patients were malnourished based on the results of SGA, MIS, and DMS questionnaires. There was no statistically significant relationship between depression and malnutrition. Also, the relation between depression and most demographic, anthropometric, biochemical, and clinical variables was not significant. But there was a significant relationship between depression and the duration of hemodialysis in men (r =-0.29, p=0.02) and serum level of TIBC in all participants (r =-0.21, p=0.03). In this study, depression was not associated with malnutrition. Further studies are needed to determine this relationship.