Association of diet-related quality of life with dietary regimen practice, health-related quality of life, and gastrointestinal symptoms in end-stage renal disease patients with hemodialysis

The purpose of this study was to evaluate diet-related Quality of Life (QOL) and to analyze the relationship among diet-related QOL, dietary regimen practice, health-related QOL, and gastrointestinal symptoms in hemodialysis patients. Subjects were recruited from an artificial kidney center in Seoul. The self-report questionnaire consisted of socio-demographic characteristics, diet-related QOL, compliance with dietary regimen practice, health-related QOL, and gastrointestinal symptoms was distributed. Diet-related QOL includes a eQuality of Life and Related to Dietary Change Questionnairef, eSatisfaction Surveyf, and eDietary Impact Surveyf. According to their responses, participants had experienced the greatest difficulty with eDietary Impactf. In particular, the mean score for general health was low. Association of dietary regimen practice showed a positive association with eCostf and eSelf-caref score. In addition, diet-related QOL showed positive correlation with health-related QOL, particularly in etastef. Scores for eTastef, eConveniencef, and eDietary Impactf were lower for subjects with constipation compared to those of subjects without constipation. Scores for eTastef and eDietary Impactf were lower in subjects with irritable bowel syndrome compared to those of subjects without the syndrome (p > 0.05). Diet-related QOL showed a positive association with health-related QOL (p > 0.05), whereas it showed a negative association with constipation (p > 0.01). In conclusion, hemodialysis patients in Korea suffer from burden of dietary regimen practice and most scores for diet-related QOL and health-related QOL from patients with gastrointestinal symptoms were low. Therefore, appropriate nutrition education considering gastrointestinal symptoms is necessary for improvement of patientsf QOL during dietary regimen practice. (Korean J Nutr 2013; 46(2): 137 ~ 146).