Level of dietary awareness among Saudi dialysis patients and the influence of various factors

Abstract

Our objective was to investigate the degree of dietary awareness of Saudi patients on chronic hemodialysis and influencing factors on this awareness. This is an interviewadministered survey-based cross-sectional study carried out on adult dialysis patients at the King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh. The first part of the survey consisted of the collection of demographic data and the second part consisted of questions in the areas of awareness on the dietary influence of sodium, potassium, fluid intake and calcium/phosphorous and lipids. The questions are simply answered as "yes" or "no." The overall awareness score was 79%. The awareness scores were highest in the area of lipids (86.5%) and lowest in the fluid intake area (71.3%). The scores for sodium, phosphorous/calcium and potassium were 80%, 79.6% and 73%, respectively. The degree of awareness was influenced by the number of visits by the dietitian (P = 0.008) and the educational level of the patients (P = 0.02), but not by age, duration on dialysis or gender. In conclusion, our findings suggest that there is a need for better of awareness among our dialysis patients. The highest score for awareness was seen in the cholesterol-related questions and the lowest score was seen in the fluid intake questions area. This is influenced by the number of visits by the dietitian and the educational level of the patients, but not by age, duration on dialysis or gender.