Real-Life Challenges in Assessing Nutritional Status and Quality of Life in Patients with Cirrhosis

Background: Liver cirrhosis is a chronic systemic disease with a prevalence of 1.3% worldwide. Malnutrition refers to an imbalance of essential nutrients or altered utilization, with a prevalence ranging from 5 to 92%. The aim of this study is to assess the quality of life of cirrhotic patients and to investigate the incidence of malnutrition, thereby enabling the identification of high-risk groups by evaluating commonly used nutritional assessment tools in everyday clinical practice and identifying discrepancies between objective and subjective measures in cirrhotic patients. Methods: This is a single-center prospective study including patients diagnosed with liver cirrhosis from a tertiary center. Results: We included 53 patients, 81.13% (n = 43) of whom were men, with a mean age of 62.36 ± 9.28. Most patients had hypoalbuminemia, vitamin D deficiency, and low levels of cholesterol, triglycerides, and magnesium. 64.15% (n = 34) had malnutrition according to the RFH-NPT test, while the SGA questionnaire revealed a high predominance of the A class. Higher mean MELD, MELD-Na, and MELD 3.0 scores were associated with higher RFH-NPT and SGA scores. The CLDQ presented lower mean values for disease progression. Conclusions: This study is a real-world evaluation of patients with liver cirrhosis referred to a tertiary center, revealing a low quality of life of the patients and a high prevalence of malnutrition.