Hypovitaminosis D and its relationship with nutritional status and quality of life in patients undergoing haemodialysis.

Objective: to assess the prevalence of hypovitaminosis D in patients undergoing haemodialysis (HD) and to determine its relationship with nutritional status and quality of life (QoL). Material and methods: 120 patients were included in the study. The Malnutrition-Inflammation Score (MIS) was used to detect nutritional risk. QoL was evaluated by Kidney Disease Quality of Life version 1.2 (KDQOL-SF). Patients were stratified into three groups according to their vitamin D status: sufficiency (≥ 30 ng/dl), insufficiency (29-10 ng/dl) and deficiency (< 10 ng/dl). Results: hypovitaminosis D was detected in 71 % of the patients studied. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that vitamin-D deficiency was the most significant predictor of low KDQOL-SF scores. It explained 21 % of the variance in the Kidney Disease Component Summary, 27 % of that in the Physical Component Summary, and 22 % of that in the Mental Component Summary. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that only vitamin-D deficiency was significantly associated with malnutrition (OR, 14.6, p < 0.001). Conclusion: HD patients frequently present with hypovitaminosis D. There is a significant correlation between vitamin-D deficiency, poorer nutritional status, and worse QoL in dialysed patients.