Evaluation of Health Related Quality of Life in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease

a Hospital based Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a progressive healthcare issue that is increasingly being recognized as a global health problem. Health related quality of life (HRQOL) is an important marker of the burden of CKD and can also be used to assess the effectiveness of treatment and predict the risk of adverse outcomes.

OBJECTIVE

The study aimed to evaluate the impact of Chronic Kidney Disease on the quality of life of patients and to determine the relationship between health-related quality of life and sociodemographic, clinical variables. Chronic kidney disease has many complications which deteriorate the quality of life.

METHOD

A cross-sectional retrospective study was conducted at the nephrology department of Jinnah Hospital, Lahore for a period of three months Oct 2015 to Jan 2016.  255 CKD patients; who were attending the nephrology department of Jinnah hospital Lahore were selected as sample by non-probability sampling. Patients who were reporting to other departments of the hospital were excluded from the study. Independent sample t-test, ANOVA and Pearson Correlation analysis was used to determine the relationship between different attributes and to compare the different health related quality of life domains with respect to different clinical and demographic variables.

RESULTS

CKD patients were screened between ages 21-80 years. In 255 CKD patients, 56.5% were males and 43.5% were females, which showed that there was a high percentage of male respondents.  Age, education level, and gender were significantly associated with higher scores on health related quality of life including physical and psychological health while being unemployed, late stage of CKD and presence of comorbidities were significantly associated with lower scores on HRQOL.

CONCLUSION

Chronic kidney disease has a negative impact on the health related quality of life of patients with late stages of the disease but deteriorated the HRQOL of hemodialysis patients. Hypertension and diabetes are may be powerful predictors to impair the health related quality of life in patients with chronic kidney disease.

KEY WORDS: Chronic kidney disease (CKD), Quality of life (QOL), Health related quality of life (HRQOL), Hemodialysis