The purpose of this study was to evaluate the
effectiveness of
nutrition education and
counseling on the salty
taste assessment, nutrition knowledge and dietary
attitude of 21
hemodialysis patients . Five times of the
nutrition education and three times of
nutrition counseling were performed for a period of 5 months. Biochemical
analysis revealed that
creatinine was significantly high (p < 0.001),
blood urea nitrogen and
serum albumin were significantly low (p < 0.05, p < 0.01) and Na, K, Cl, K, P and
uric acid were not significantly different. The distribution rate of unsalty
taste preference were significantly high and the distribution rate of salty
taste preference were significantly low after
nutrition education and
counseling (p < 0.001).
Nutrition knowledge significantly improved following 5th month of
education and
counseling (p < 0.01). Particularly, the scores for questions related to
sodium were improved. The dietary
attitude was significantly improved during the
counseling period (p < 0.05). There were improvements in responses to 'use
food exchange list on
diet ' and 'habitually add
salt or
soy sauce before the
meal '. According to these results, salty
taste assessment, nutrition knowledge and dietary
attitude were significantly improved by the
hemodialysis diet therapy practices of
hemodialysis patients . Therefore, we conclude that there was a need for
low-salt diet education and
nutrition counseling to help them recognize the
taste of low-
salt foods and strive towards a preference for less salty tasting
foods and the
consumption of a
low-salt diet .