HANDGRIP STRENGTH AS A SIMPLE INDICATOR OF MALNUTRITION IN HEMODIALYSIS PATIENTS

Abstract

Handgrip strength is a simple, easily performed bedside test that has been shown to correlate with lean body mass in patients close to inception of dialysis. To assess the usefulness of handgrip strength (HGS) as a simple screening instrument for assessing malnutrition among patients on Maintenance Hemodialysis and correlate it with Subjective Global Assessment score (SGA). 50 subjects on Maintenance Hemodialysis were randomly assessed using SGA scores and their Hand Grip Strength using the HGS instrument once after the dialysis. The study comprised of subjects in 3 different stages of CKD, stage III (22%), stage IV (44%), stage V (34%) among which 78% (39) were men with mean age of 51.46±13.21yr and 22% (11) were women with mean age of 60.36±14.62yr. The SGA classification showed that all the subjects (6) in severely malnourished category were of stage V whereas Very mild risk to well nourished category (15) comprised of stage III and IV. Similarly, the HGS scores were found to be 25.18±5.036 kg and 18.87±5.365 kg in CKD stage III and CKD stage V respectively. HGS was found to be directly correlated with SGA score, with statistical significance of p<0.01. HGS is a complementary tool for screening malnutrition in patients on Maintenance Hemodialysis.