Introduction: Hydrochlorothiazide is one of the drugs used to treat systemic arterial hypertension,
a component of metabolic syndrome. The use of this medication is related to nutrient losses such as
magnesium, a fact that favors nutritional deficiency for those with inadequate food consumption of this
mineral. Thus, this study aimed to assess food intake of magnesium in patients with metabolic syndrome,
who use hydrochlorothiazide. Methods: This is a cross-sectional, analytical-descriptive, retrospective
study, carried out in a nutrition school clinic in Salvador–BA, in which the evaluation of the magnesium
food consumption of 35 patients was made, according to the values established by the Dietary Reference Intake, and according to sex, age group, education, family income and polypharmacy therapy.
Data analysis was performed considering statistical significance when p-value ≤0.05. Results: The
average magnesium food consumption found was 188.02 ± 93.9 mg and the percentage of inadequacy
according to Estimated Average Requirement and Recommended Dietary Allowances was 80% and
85.7%, respectively. The average food consumption revealed higher results for: men (197.22 ± 27.7
mg) compared to women (186.83 ± 99.5 mg) (p=0.652); adults aged 20 to 39 years (195.69 ± 139.6
mg) compared to other age groups (p=0.935); those who attended high school (205.95 ± 102.5 mg)
compared to other schooling (p=0.490); those who had a family income of up to 1 minimum wage
(207.06 ± 107.2 mg) compared to other family incomes (p=0.640); and those who used polypharmacy
(204.08 ± 104.4 mg) compared to those who did not use it (174.50 ± 84.5 mg) (p=0.371). However,
these findings were not statistically significative and all were below the established reference values.
Conclusions: The results found revealed an inadequate food intake of magnesium. There is a need to
adopt nutritional strategies to encourage the consumption of foods containing magnesium for patients
with metabolic syndromic.