[ effect of oral vitamin C on fatigue in hemodialysis patients at selected hospitals of army university medical science in 2009]

Fatigue is a debilitating symptom or side effect experienced by many patients on dialysis therapy. Fatigue has a considerable effect on quality of life in these patients. The purpose of this study was determination of the vitamin C effect on fatigue measure. We investigated 56 hemodialysis patients who complained of fatigue and admitted at Emam Reza and Besat University Hospitals in 2009. The inclusion criteria: 1]Subjects diagnosed with chronic renal failure and received regular hemodialysis treatment for at least six month, 2] Aged 18 years or older, 3] conscious alerts and oriented, 4] Without other systemic diseases causing or increasing levels of fatigue such as chronic heart, liver and pulmonary diseases, cancer, mental retardation and chronic psychological disease, 5] Ability to communicate verbally and give informed consent and participate in this study. The exclusion criteria: the patients were excluded when supplementation with vitamin c in oral or injection form and adverse reaction occurred. The patients who met the inclusion criteria were randomly and equally in number assigned to Case and Control Groups. Case group members received oral vitamin C for two month, 250 mg, three times per week. The patients conducted fatigue severity questionnaires before and after of intervention. The results were statistically analyzed with T-test and P-value under 0.05. The fatigue score of the patients in the case group before intervention was 5.29 and after it were 3.94 while in the control group, the fatigue score of the patients were 5.007 and 4.93 before and after of intervention respectively. These results shows a statistical significance in decrease of fatigue score with [P<0.05] by using of oral vitamin C. We thing that the oral vitamin C in hemodialysis patient who complaint of fatigue is helpful