Dietary Practices and Nutritional Status of Hemodialysis Patients in Meru County

The increasing prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) imposes a huge healthcare burden on developing countries. For patients undergoing hemodialysis (HD), optimal nutritional management is associated with better treatment outcomes and quality of life. However, malnutrition is commonly reported among these patients and calls for investigation of specific aspects of their diet that can be targeted by counseling and other interventions. The study sought to establish the Dietary Practices and Nutrition Status Hemodialysis patients in Meru County. This study investigated a sample size of 98 hemodialysis patients across health facilities in Meru County on their dietary practices and nutritional status. The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional design. Respondents were randomly selected from three health facilities offering dialysis services within the County. Data was collected using researcher-administered structured questionnaires. Nutritional Status was assessed by both Body Mass Index (BMI) and a modified Subjective Global Assessment (SGA) tool. A single 24-hour recall was used to assess nutrient intake. Weight and height were taken using electronic scales and stadiometers respectively. Data was cleaned in Excel sheets then transferred into the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 25 software for analysis employing descriptive statistics. The findings show that majority (56.8%) of the respondents had medium dietary diversity. The mean dietary diversity score (DDS) was 3.79+1.0. The most consumed food group was starchy staples (100% frequency), while the least consumed food group was organ meats consumed (2.1%). The mean intakes of energy and protein were 1121.28±479.42 and 40.73±21.82 respectively. The mean intakes for key micronutrients including calcium, phosphorous, potassium, sodium magnesium, zinc and iron in mg/day were 317.84±207.84, 858.69±344.10, 1463.84±785.86, 1118.47±707.69, 216.07±88.94, 6.32±3.41 and 10.81±5.36. Except for proteins and iron, various nutrients were consumed below the recommendations by majority of respondents. The mean BMI (kg/m<sup>2</sup>) and SGA score of the respondents were 21.64±3.72 and 18.82±3. 71 respectively. Based on the WHO classification system 67.3%, 17.4% and 15.3% of the respondents were normal weight, underweight and overweight/obese respectively. However, based on the SGA scores 75.5% and 24.5% of the respondents had mild malnutrition and moderate malnutrition respectively. Over a quarter of haemodialysis patients have poor nutrition status. There is need to scale individualized dietary counselling interventions to improve the dietary practices for better nutritional outcomes among the haemodialysis patient population in Meru County.