Comparison of Quality of Life between Kidney Transplant Patients and Dialysis Patients / 대한이식학회지

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Kidney transplant patient have a higher quality of life (QOL) and consume fewer health care resources compared to patients on dialysis. The purposes of this study were to compare the QOL in transplant patients and dialysis patients, and to provide basic materials necessary for enhancing their perceived QOL through conducting a survey. METHODS: The subjects of this study were 108 kidney transplant patients performed in our center, from 1990 to 2007, and 46 dialysis patients. These data have been collected from August to September in 2007 by a structured questionnaire about QOL consists of 42 items that assess 6 aspects; Affective state, Social activities, Somatic symptoms, family relationship and financial situation, attitudes toward life, and perceptions of health. We analyzed the collected data through T-test, frequency analysis, and one way ANOVA by employing a statistics package, SPSS 12.0 and we used Cronbach's Alpha Coefficient to verify accuracy and reliability of the measurement tools. RESULTS: Kidney transplant patients were shown statistically significant higher QOL than the dialysis patients, in affective state (P=.000), social activities (P=.001), somatic symptoms (P=.000), attitudes toward life (p=.000), and perceptions of health (P=.000). In family relationship and financial situation (P=.202), transplant patients were shown higher scores than dialysis patients, but there were not statistically significant differences. CONCLUSIONS: We suggest that kidney transplant patients enjoy higher QOL than dialysis patients with statistically significant differences, and there also showed different levels of the QOL according to general characteristics and disease-related features between the two types of patients.