Abstract
There is limited knowledge about dietary intake and body composition among patients with primary Sjögren’s syndrome. We assessed dietary intakes with 24-h recalls and body composition with anthropometry and bioelectrical impedance in 20 female patients. Various scoring tools were used to assess oral health. The patients had a lower energy percentage (E%) from carbohydrates (p = 0.02) and a higher E% from fat (p = 0.01) compared to a reference group. The lower intake of carbohydrates was due to a lower bread intake (p = 0.04), while the higher intake of fat was due to a higher intake of butter, margarine, and oil (p = 0.01). The patients ate more than twice (p = 0.02) as much fish as the reference group. The compliance to recommended intakes of macro- and micronutrients was good. Forty-percent of the patients were overweight/obese. Increased intake of beverages was observed in patients with severe xerostomia and/or low oral health-related quality of life, whereas reduced fat intake was found in hyposmic patients. In conclusion, the dietary intake among the patients was not much different from the reference group and complied with recommendations. Most oral health parameters were not associated with nutrient intakes. Specific dietary guidelines are probably not needed to ensure adequate nutrition among such patients.
Highlights
Primary Sjögren’s syndrome is an autoimmune disorder of the exocrine glands with unknown etiology, and it mainly affects postmenopausal women [1]
The dietary data were compared to an age- and gender-matched reference group from the dietary survey Norkost 3 (N3), which was conducted among Norwegian adults in 2010–2011 [22]
We examined whether the Primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS)-patients complied with the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations for dietary intakes using the guidelines for comparisons as stated in these recommendations [23], which are recommended by the Norwegian Health Authorities
Summary
Primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS) is an autoimmune disorder of the exocrine glands with unknown etiology, and it mainly affects postmenopausal women [1]. There is a higher risk of gastroesophageal reflux disease among pSS-patients compared with the general population [6]. These manifestations may affect food intake among pSS patients. Hay et al did not find that pSS-patients had a diet different from the recommended intakes of the New Zealand population, even though the same patient group reported an altered food intake after the onset of xerostomia [8]. A Norwegian study investigated the effect of a liquid diet in pSS-patients and found that the intervention group had increased salivary flow compared to controls after 4 weeks on the diet [13]. We studied associations between dietary intake/body composition and oral health among the patients
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