Geriatric nutritional risk index is associated with mortality in peritoneal dialysis patients

BACKGROUND: Malnutrition is one of the most common complications among dialysis patients. The Geriatric Nutritional Risk Index (GNRI) is rarely used in dialysis patients, especially peritoneal dialysis (PD). AIM: To use the GNRI to evaluate the initial nutritional state of PD patients and to examine the association between the GNRI and mortality in chronic PD patients. METHODS: We retrospectively examined the medical records at our centre to identify all adults (>/=18 years) who had undergone PD for over 3 months before recruitment from January 2005 to December 2017. The correlation between the GNRI and mortality was examined by Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazards analyses. RESULTS: A total of 1804 patients was enrolled in the study. Significant correlations were noted between the initial GNRI and Charlson index, uric acid, blood calcium, potassium, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, haemoglobin and so on. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards analyses demonstrated that the GNRI was associated with all-cause mortality (hazard ratio = 0.96, P < 0.001, 95% confidence interval: 0.95-0.98) after adjustment. Compared with the lowest GNRI group, all-cause mortality decreased significantly for each level of GNRI after adjusting for various influencing factors, and the mortality risk of the highest GNRI grade decreased by 66%. The Kaplan-Meier analysis survival rate was significantly different among the four groups in terms of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular mortality (log-rank test, P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrated that the GNRI is significantly associated with mortality and can be a simple, clinically useful marker for the assessment of nutritional status in PD patients.