Quality of Life of Long-Term Hemodialysis Patients

The outcome of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is frequently development of end-stage kidney failure that requires program hemodialysis (PHD). Increase of the longevity of long-term PHD patients is associated with continuous somatic and psychic stress for the patient, which might adversely affect the quality of life (QoL) of an end-stage CKD patient.

Purpose: to determine the influence of age and dialysis duration on the QoL of end-stage CKD patients receiving PHD.

Materials and methods. 50 patients receiving PHD (23 men and 27 women), aged 31 to 79 years, were examined. The mean age was 56.72±11.26 years. The PHD duration ranged between 1 month to 20 years, the average figure being 5.26±4.82 years. The control group included 50 healthy subjects of comparable gender and age. The QoL evaluation data were gathered through survey using the Russian version of SF-36 Questionnaire (Short Form Medical Outcomes Study), validated by the Institute of Clinical and Pharmacological Studies (Saint Petersburg) and analysis of case records.

Results. As regards the scales of physical health, a decrease of the QoL of PHD patients was found as follows: РF-physical functioning (54.1±25.6 vs. 85.0±21.4), RP-role functioning related to physical condition (38.5±35.4 vs. 74.5±29.7), Pbodily pain (64.7±32.1 vs. 70.5±24.8), GH-general health condition (51.3±15.9 vs. 65.1±21.7). A trend towards inter-group difference was also discovered as regards the scales of vitality (VT) (53.7±19.5 vs. 61.0±19.4), social functioning (SF) (72.5±18.0 vs. 79.5±23.5). Multiple regression analysis established inverse relationship between the patient’s physical health component (PH) and age (rs=-0.317, P<0.05).

Conclusion. In PHD patients, the physical health component is the one that suffers most of all, namely: physical functioning, role functioning related to physical condition, pain intensity, and general health condition. The tendency to statistic differences is observed for the scales of vitality and social functioning of the mental health component. Increase of the age and dialysis duration affect adversely the physical health whereas render no influence on the mental health.

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