ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Clinical Nutrition
This article is part of the Research TopicNutritional Status and Nutritional Support in Hospitalized PatientsView all 31 articles
Investigation of nutritional status, taste-smell functions, and hedonic pleasure of recipients after liver transplantation
Provisionally accepted
- 1Istanbul Nisantasi Universitesi, Sarıyer, Türkiye
- 2Istanbul Aydin Universitesi, Istanbul, Türkiye
- 3Malatya Turgut Özal University, Malatya, Türkiye
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ABSTRACT Background: Taste and smell disorders have the potential to be associated with malnutrition and a loss of hedonic pleasure in liver transplantation recipients. Information regarding the deterioration of nutritional status in individuals with chronic liver disease is widely known, but changes following liver transplantation need to be investigated. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the nutritional status, taste and smell functions, and hedonic pleasure of liver transplant recipients. Method: The data for this descriptive and cross-sectional study were collected by researchers at an organ transplant hospital. The sample group consisted of n=326 liver transplant recipients who met the selection criteria. The data collection tools used in this study were a personal information form, the Controlling Nutritional Status Tool (CONUT), the Complete Mouth Test (CMT), the Connecticut Olfactory Recognition Test (CCCRC), the Food Cravings Questionnaire (FCQ), and the Charlson Comorbidity Index. Information about the data collection tools is provided below. Descriptive tests and parametric tests were used in data analysis. Results: In this study, 62.9% of liver transplant recipients were moderately malnourished, 62.9% had severe hyposmia, and 74.2% had hypogeusia. There was an inverse correlation between the duration post-transplant and the severity of malnutrition, taste and smell disorders, and a direct correlation with perceived hedonic pleasure (p<0.05). Accordingly, there was a statistically significant negative and weak correlation between FCQ and CONUT mean scores (r=-0.154, p=0.005). There was a statistically significant negative and weak correlation between CMT mean scores and CONUT (r=-0.142, p=0.011). There was a statistically significant negative and moderate correlation between the CCCRC score average and age (r=-0.432, p=0.000) and a statistically significant negative and weak correlation between the CCCRC score average and CONUT (r=-0.158, p=0.004). Conclusion: This study revealed that more than half of liver transplant recipients were moderately malnourished, with a similar proportion having severe hyposmia, and three-quarters had hypogeusia. The severity of malnutrition, along with taste and smell disorders, decreased with increasing post-transplant duration. Smell deficits increased with age. Strategies should be developed to improve malnutrition, taste, and smell disorders in liver transplant recipients, particularly the elderly and those in the early post-transplant period.
Keywords: Hedonic pleasure, Liver recipients, Liver Transplantation, Nutritional Status, Smell, Taste
Received: 30 Dec 2025; Accepted: 13 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Cinar, Bulbuloglu and Sarıtaş. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Serdar Sarıtaş
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