Female Renal Donors: Impact of Donation on Anxiety, Depressive Symptoms and Quality of Life

Introduction: Donating one’s kidney can be a complicated psychological experience. This study was designed to evaluate and compare anxiety, depression and quality of life of married female renal donors during the pre and post donation phase. Methods: In this prospective longitudinal observational study, 39 consecutive female renal donors were assessed using PHQ-9, HAM-A and the WHO QoL-Bref Questionnaire 2 weeks before and 3 months after kidney donation. Results: The mean age of female kidney donors was 41.74 ± 8.85. After donation, prevalence of depression increased from 43.59 % (n = 17) to 53.84 % (n = 21), (t(38) = -2.089, p = 0.04) while prevalence of anxiety in donors increased from 58.97 (n = 23) to 69.23 % (n = 27) and the difference was found to be statistically significant (t(38) = 2.47, p = 0.01). Kidney transplantation resulted in a significant decrease in overall perception score of WHOQOL-Bref Questionnaire. (t(38) = 3.504, p = 0.001), overall perception score of health (t(38) = 3.504, p = 0.001), physical domain (t(38) = 4.180, p = 0.000) and psychological domain (t(38) = 2.469, p = 0.018) after donation. There were no significant changes in the social relationship (t(38) = -0.80, p = 0.936) and environmental health domain scores (t(38) = 0.991, p = 0.328). On multiple regression analysis, presence of pre-transplant depression was independently associated with overall score of WHOQOL-Bref Questionnaire (β = -0.14, p = 0.002), perception of health (β = -0.08, p = 0.001), physical health (β = -1.91, p = 0.08) and psychological health (β = -2.57, p = 0.02). Pre-transplant anxiety was negatively related to overall perception of health (β = -0.08, p = 0.01), physical health (β = -2.05, p = 0.01) and psychological health (β = -1.94, p = 0.02). Conclusion: Significant reduction in quality of life, perception of health, physical health and psychological domain of female renal donors was observed after donation.