Assessment of nutritional status in correlation with quality of life and disease activity in hospitalized patients with inflammatory bowel diseases

Introduction: Patients with inflammatory bowel diseases have an impaired quality of life and can develop severe nutritional deficits. Many nutrition screening tools have been proposed but the nutrition screening tools with the most utility in inflammatory bowel diseases patients are still unknown.
The aim of the study was to assess the correlation between nutritional status and disease activity in inflammatory bowel diseases patients and to assess if nutritional status has an impact on quality of life.
Material and Methods: The study included 88 patients with active inflammatory bowel diseases admitted to our hospital. Disease activity was assessed by clinical and biological parameters and endoscopic scores. Nutritional status was assessed by BMI, MUST, NRS - 2002, O-PNI and CONUT. Quality of life was assessed by Short Inflammatory Bowel Diseases Questionnaire.
Results: In total, 50 patients with Crohn′s disease and 38 patients with ulcerative colitis were eligible for our study. In Crohn′s disease patients, CDAI and fecal calprotectin best correlated with albumin and SES - CD had a moderate correlation with albumin, O - PNI, MUST and NRS-2002; in ulcerative colitis patients, partial Mayo score had strong correlation with BMI, Mayo endoscopic score and fecal calprotectin showed a strong correlation with albumin. Short Inflammatory Bowel Diseases Questionnairewas strongly correlated with BMI in Crohn′s disease patients and moderately correlated with MUST, albumin, BMI and NRS - 2002 in ulcerative colitis patients.
Conclusions: Malnutrition is common ininflammatory bowel diseases. Disease activity is reflected on the nutritional status of the patients and this impairs quality of life. The study opens the perspective of assuming that influencing the nutritional status of patients suffering from these diseases by appropriate nutritional treatment measures, this could be reflected in the increased quality of life of these patients.