Introduction: Liver disease affects over 9 million Canadians and kills 2 million people annually worldwide. Malnutrition is the most common complication of chronic liver disease and impacts the patients quality of life. This project aims to investigate the potential beneficial impact of the Nutrition in Cirrhosis Guide, an evidence-based document developed by experts and patients. Specifically, 1)Assess the short/long-term effects on i)nutritional status; ii)nutritional knowledge; iii)quality of life; iv)liver function; and, long-term only, v)complications; vi)hospital stays. 2) Determine the Guide’s impact on the caregivers’s quality of life and burden. 3)Assess the patients’ and caregivers’ satisfaction towards the Guide. 4)Elaborate implementation steps of the Guide among this population. Methods: 160 patients from the hepatology outpatients clinic from the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal in Canada will be divided in 2 groups (n=80/group): Experimental (Guide) and Control (no Guide). Assessements will be performed by a registered dietitian at T=0, 12 and 52 weeks regarding nutritional status, quality of life, liver function and nutritional knowledge. At 52 weeks, complications and hospital stays will be documented. The caregivers’ quality of life and burden will be assessed at 0, 12 and 52 weeks. Finally, three focus groups of patients and caregivers will be randomly chosen from the Experimental group to discuss the Guide’s appreciation. Preliminary results: So far, 24 patients completed the study (67% men, 60 years old in average, and etiologies 30% NASH, 25% alcohol, 12,5% HCV, HBV and mixed etiologies, and 4% others). The results show a trend of a better nutritional knowledge in the Experimental group (n=19) compared to controls (n=5) by 10% after 12 weeks. There is yet no difference in nutritional status and quality of life. Conclusion: Overall, our results should facilitate the implementation of the Guide and, importantly, optimize the quality of care in the cirrhotic community.
