Latent profile of nutritional literacy and dietary health belief differences in maintenance hemodialysis patients

BAO Zefeng; LI Lingli; ZHANG Chunhui; XIA Li; XIAO Lyuman; LIU Bing

doi:10.12102/j.issn.1009-6493.2026.06.009

Abstract：Objective:To explore the latent categories of nutritional literacy and the differences in dietary health beliefs across different categories in maintenance hemodialysis(MHD)patients.Methods:A total of 238 MHD patients from the hemodialysis center of Taihe Hospital in Shiyan city were selected as the study subjects from October to December 2024 by convenience sampling.Data were collected using a general demographic information questionnaire,the Nutritional Literacy Assessment Questionnaire for MHD Patients,and the Dietary Health Belief Questionnaire for Hemodialysis Patients.Latent profile analysis(LPA)was used to classify patients'nutritional literacy into different categories,and differences in dietary health beliefs across categories were compared.Results:The nutritional literacy of MHD patients could be classified into three latent categories,namely passive acceptance type(34.5%),guidance-dependent type(52.1%),and self-management type(13.4%).There were statistically significant differences in the total scores of dietary health beliefs among MHD patients with different nutritional literacy categories(P<0.05).Logistic regression analysis showed that age,gender,and place of residence were influencing factors of the latent categories of nutritional literacy in MHD patients(P<0.05).Conclusions:There is heterogeneity in the nutritional literacy of MHD patients.The levels of dietary health beliefs vary across different nutritional literacy categories.Healthcare professionals should develop personalized intervention strategies based on patients'nutritional literacy categories to improve their nutritional literacy and dietary health beliefs.