Perceptions of hemodialysis patients about dietary and fluid restrictions.

INTRODUCTION: Dietary regimen for hemodialysis (HD) patients is complicate and identifying characteristics and reasons of those most likely to experience difficulty in adhering to dietary restrictions is important.

OBJECTIVE: To quantify HD patient's perceptions about dietary and fluid restrictions, acknowledge individual reasons that facilitate or complicate their adherence, and also their relationship with demographic, nutritional and clinical characteristics.

METHODS: Multi-center cross-sectional study in five dialysis facilities. HD patients (n = 147; 48% male; age: 51,3 ± 13,6 years) were encouraged to score on a scale of 0 to 10 their perception of the degree of difficulty to adhere the nutritional advice regarding control of sodium, fluid, potassium and phosphorus intake.

RESULTS: Sodium score was 4(1-7), fluids 6(3-8), potassium 4(2-6) and phosphate 6(3-8). Percentage of patients who perceived a greater difficulty (score ≥ 6) to control fluids and phosphate intake was higher than for sodium and potassium. Participants with excessive % interdialytic weight gain (%IDWG) had a higher score for fluids; the ones with hypercalemia perceived more difficulty to control potassium intake than others as well as hyperphosphatemic patients compared to normophosphatemic to control phosphorus intake. Participants with a greater difficulty to control sodium intake also perceived a greater difficulty to control fluids, potassium and phosphate intake.

CONCLUSION: Participants perceived a greater difficulty to control fluid and phosphate intake rather than sodium and potassium, higher perceptions scores were associated with subgroups and with worse control of clinical parameters. Moreover, patients with a greater difficulty to control some dietary item also found harder to control the other ones.