Diet variety sup the relationship between appetite and micronutrient intake in patients with heart failure.
Christina Andreae, Terry A Lennie, Misook L Chung
PMID 36172803WHAT IT FOUND
Poor appetite drives micronutrient gaps in heart failure mainly by shrinking diet variety.
Higher appetite scores linked to eating from more food groups, which lowered the count of insufficient nutrients. Assessing both appetite and variety may identify patients needing dietary support.
Key findings
01Diet variety mediated the link between appetite and micronutrient insufficiency, even after adjusting for age, gender, NYHA class, and BMI.
02Patients with higher appetite ratings ate a more varied diet, and that higher variety was associated with fewer micronutrient insufficiencies.
03In the adjusted model, there was no definitive evidence that appetite was directly associated with micronutrient insufficiency once diet variety was accounted for.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The sample was predominantly male (68%) and slightly younger than the typical heart failure population, limiting generalizability to women and older adults. Participants were primarily White, which may restrict applicability to other racial and ethnic groups. Appetite was measured using a single-item visual analogue scale, which did not capture specific factors like early satiety, taste changes, or anhedonia. The analysis was cross-sectional, so it cannot prove that increasing diet variety will causally improve micronutrient status. Key factors influencing eating habits, such as food insecurity, accessibility, and habitual dietary patterns, were not measured or adjusted for. Participants with very low caloric intake were excluded, potentially removing those with the most severe appetite issues.
Declared interests
None declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret this as evidence that increasing diet variety will automatically correct micronutrient deficiencies. This is a cross-sectional association, not a trial of an intervention, so it shows that variety links appetite to nutrient status but does not prove that changing variety changes outcomes.