Health-related quality of life in patients with terminal chronic kidney disease

Abstract

Introduction: The incidence increased of chronic kidney disease, together with the changes caused in patients' lifestyles by undergoing renal replacement therapy to prolong life, has prompted the quantification of the effects of disease and treatment about quality of life.

Objective: To evaluate the health-related quality of life in patients with end-stage chronic kidney disease treated at the Nephrology Service of the "Carlos Font Pupo" Teaching Clinical-Surgical Hospital at February, 2019.

Material and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional observational study was performed in 20 patients with chronic terminal kidney disease. The information was obtained from semi-structured interviews and the responses of the Kidney Disease Quality of Life Short Form version 1.3 questionnaire. To fulfill the objective, descriptive statistics were used in the form of Absolute Frequencies, mean, standard deviation and the Mann-Whitney U test.

Results: The most committed generic dimensions were Physical role (18.75 ± 17.91), Energy / fatigue (48 ± 21.79) and General health perception (50.5 ± 22.41). In the specific dimensions, the lowest scores were obtained in employment status (9 ± 18.89), sexual function (44.38 ± 46.68) and burden of kidney disease (52.5 ± 21.88). 50% of the patients presented a quality of average life.

Conclusions: The results obtained in the different dimensions do not differ significantly from those of consulted international studies that applied this instrument.