does the serum zinc level affect the quality of life in dialysis patients? a report from iran

Background: zinc deficiency is a common finding among esrd and dialysis patients and may affect their quality of life.objectives: this study aimed to evaluate the serum level of zinc and its correlation with the quality-of-life score in dialysis patients. methods: a cross-sectional study was conducted in 2018 on dialysis patients. patients’ information and clinical data, their serum zinc levels, and quality of life assessed by the sf-36 questionnaire were collected. the spearman correlation test was used to assess the correlation between serum zinc levels and the physical (pcs) and mental (mcs) component summary scores of the sf-36 questionnaire in general and in different subgroups. p-values less than 0.05 were considered significant. results: in the hd group, pcs and mcs scores were significantly correlated (p = 0.0001), while this correlation was not observed in the pd group. additionally, there was a positive correlation between zinc levels and pcs and mcs scores in the hd group but not in the pd group (p = 0.0001). in the pd group, only age negatively correlated with the pcs score (p = 0.03), without any other significant correlations with other study variables. multivariate analysis revealed that zinc level was an independent predictor of pcs and mcs scores in the hd group (p < 0.001). in the pd group, age (p = 0.02) and zinc level (p = 0.03) were independent predictors of pcs score but not mcs score. conclusions: there is a positive correlation between serum zinc levels and both the physical and mental aspects of quality of life in dialysis patients.