Health related quality of life in renal transplantation: 2 years of longitudinal follow-up

Abstract

Background and objective: Health related quality of life (HRQoL) is recognized as an outcome measure in kidney transplantation. In this study was assessed changes on HRQoL and kidney-specific symptoms, also was evaluated the effect of socio-demographic and clinical parameters on patient's perceived HRQoL.

Patients and method: A longitudinal study was done, at 5 time-points over 2 years after transplantation. To evaluate HRQoL the Kidney Disease Quality of Life Questionnaire Short Form was administrated, and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale was used to assess psychological distress.

Results: At 6-months after transplantation, patients had similar HRQoL scores compared to the general population. The improvement on effects of kidney disease domain could be considered as large (η²=0.29), and medium on burden of kidney disease domain (η²=0.12), work status domain (η²=0.12), and sexual function domain (η²=0.13). Psychological distress, depressive symptoms, haemoglobin, and serum creatinine had significant influence on patient's perceived HRQoL over 2 years after transplantation.

Conclusions: An improvement of HRQoL was observed on general and specific-targeted symptoms over 2 years after renal transplantation.

Keywords: Calidad de vida relacionada con la salud; Depresión; Depression; Health related quality of life; Longitudinal; Renal transplantation; Specific-symptoms of kidney disease; Síntomas específicos de la enfermedad renal; Trasplante renal.