Quality of Life of Chronic Kidney Disease Patients on haemodialysis in a tertiary care centre

Abstract

Abstract Background: End-stage renal failure is a chronic disease that greatly impacts a patient's health-related quality of life mainly due to the imposed limitations in almost all domains of their daily lives affecting >10% of the general population worldwide, amounting to >800 million individuals. Haemodialysis consists of a complex procedure for patients that requires frequent hospital or dialysis centre visits, three times a week, Objectives: To assess Quality of life and to find an association between QOL, socio-demographic factors, and clinical variables among chronic kidney disease patients on haemodialysis Material and methods: The sample consisted of 89 patients undergoing haemodialysis. Data was collected by a specially designed questionnaire (KDQOL-36) which apart from the socio-demographic and clinical variables, also included the kidney disease variables for assessing the quality of life. Results: The results indicated that haemodialysis patients' QOL was impacted by socio-demographic and clinical factors related to dialysis. The study majorly reported that these factors played a major role directly and indirectly, with social activities affecting more followed by emotional disturbances and physical activities. Conclusion: QOL of haemodialysis patients can be improved by correctable factors like anemia, diabetes, and hypertension. Healthcare practitioners can create personalised interventions that are tailored to the needs of haemodialysis patients by having a deeper grasp of the variables like treatment of co-morbidities decrease in the number of hospitalizations, better management of anemia and decreasing the distance between home & dialysis center.