assessment of nutritional status in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients

background: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (copd) is considered a major public health problem in the world. weight loss, muscle and fat mass depletion are common nutritional problems in copd patients and are determinant factors in pul­monary function, health status, disability and mortality. in the present study, we assessed nutritional status in copd pa­tients. methods: this cross-sectional study was performed in the rasul-e-akram hospital, tehran, iran on 63 copd patients with mean age (sd) of 67.6 (9.4) years. all subjects were diagnosed by a pulmonary specialist and based on a spirometry test. they were divided into three groups (2, 3, 4 stages of disease). anthropometric and biochemical indices, body composition analy­ses by bioelectric impedance, spirometry test and determination of disease severity were performed for all subjects. all analy­ses were performed using the spss 14. all data presented as means (± sd).  results: reduction of body mass index (bmi), mid-arm muscle circumference (mamc) and fat-free mass (ffm) were ob­served alongside an increase in disease severity but it was not significant. significant reduction of fat mass (fm) ( p = 0.007), fat mass index (fmi) ( p = 0.03) and biochemical indices like albumin ( p = 0.000) and total protein ( p = 0.04) were associ­ated with an increase in disease stages. conclusion: it is suggested that in addition to bmi, other nutritional status indices like mamc, ffm and fm should be used for early diagnosis of malnutrition before weight loss occurs.