Journal of Renal Nutrition
Volume 20, Issue 5 , Pages 329-333, September 2010

Adherence to Fish Oil Intervention in Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease

  • Rachel Zabel, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, Queensland, Australia
    • Corresponding Author InformationAddress reprint requests to Rachel Zabel, PhD, School of Public Health, Queensland University of Technology, Victoria Park Road, Kelvin Grove, Queensland 4059, Australia.
    • ,
  • Susan Ash, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, Queensland, Australia
    • ,
  • Neil King, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, Queensland, Australia
    • ,
  • Judith Bauer, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Wesley Research Institute, Wesley Hospital, Auchenflower, Queensland, Australia

published online 22 March 2010.

Objective

With growing recognition of the role of inflammation in the development of chronic and acute disease, fish oil is increasingly used as a therapeutic agent, but the nature of the intervention may pose barriers to adherence in clinical populations. Our objective was to investigate the feasibility of using a fish oil supplement in hemodialysis patients.

Design

This was a nonrandomized intervention study.

Setting

Eligible patients were recruited at the Hemodialysis Unit of Wesley Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Patients

The sample included 28 maintenance hemodialysis patients out of 43 eligible patients in the unit. Exclusion criteria included patients regularly taking a fish oil supplement at baseline, receiving hemodialysis for less than 3 months, or being unable to give informed consent.

Intervention

Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) was administered at 2000 mg/day (4 capsules) for 12 weeks. Adherence was measured at baseline and weekly throughout the study according to changes in plasma EPA, and was further measured subjectively by self-report.

Results

Twenty patients (74%) adhered to the prescription based on changes in plasma EPA, whereas an additional two patients self-reported good adherence. There was a positive relationship between fish oil intake and change in plasma EPA. Most patients did not report problems with taking the fish oil. Using the baseline data, it was not possible to characterize adherent patients.

Conclusions

Despite potential barriers, including the need to take a large number of prescribed medications already, 74% of hemodialysis patients adhered to the intervention. This study demonstrated the feasibility of using fish oil in a clinical population.

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 This work was conducted at the Wesley Research Institute, Wesley Hospital, Auchenflower, Queensland, Australia.

 Fish oil was supplied “in kind” by Nordic Naturals, Inc. (Watsonville, CA). Nordic Naturals, Inc., had no role in the study design, collection, analysis, or interpretation of data, writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. There are no conflicts of interest to declare. R.Z. designed the study, collected the data, analyzed and interpreted the results, and wrote the manuscript. S.A., J.B., and N.K also designed the study, and assisted in the interpretation of results and writing of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

PII: S1051-2276(10)00004-X

doi:10.1053/j.jrn.2010.01.003

Journal of Renal Nutrition
Volume 20, Issue 5 , Pages 329-333, September 2010

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