An Assessment of the Nutritional Status in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease-A Matched-Pair Case-Control Study

Abstract

Methods used in daily clinical practice for the assessment of the nutritional status in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are often based on simple indices and may not be sufficient in the case of minor or early changes. The purpose of this study was to analyze the nutritional status in patients with IBD.

Material and methods: The case-control study included 80 patients with IBD. The control group consisted of 80 healthy subjects matched based on age and gender. Body composition was measured using the electrical bioimpedance method.

Results: Compared to the healthy women, the female patients with IBD had a significantly lower muscle mass (24.4 kg vs. 27.9 kg) and muscle strength (22.4 kg vs. 25.9 kg), as well as a lower MMI (7.8 kg/m² vs. 9.9 kg/m²). Based on these findings, sarcopenia was diagnosed in 37.5% of the female patients, significantly more often than in the control group. In the group of men, there were no significant differences between the healthy controls and patients in terms of body composition and the prevalence of underweight and sarcopenia.

Conclusions: The patients with IBD were characterized by a poorer nutritional status than the healthy subjects, mainly in terms of fat-free body mass and muscle mass, and consequently a higher incidence of sarcopenia, especially in the female group.

Keywords: Crohn’s disease; body composition; nutritional assessment; sarcopenia; ulcerative colitis.