ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: hemodialysis affects patients' quality of life and is associated with physical, psychological, occupational and social problems. These patients use relatively high levels of the complementary and alternative medicine. The current study aimed to investigate the relationship between complementary and alternative medicines usage, and quality of life in patients under hemodialysis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: this cross-sectional correlational study was conducted in Kerman, southeast Iran, in 2019. The study subjects were 113 hemodialysis patients. The instrument used in this study consisted of three parts: clinical and demographic information, a researcher-conducted questionnaire on the use of complementary and alternative medicines, and KDQOL_SF to assess the quality of life of hemodialysis patients. RESULTS: 75.2 % of the samples used at least one type of complementary and alternative medicines in the past year. The most commonly used types of complementary and alternative medicines were prayer, and herbal medicines. The mean quality of life in hemodialysis patients was 52.81 ± 14.39. Only 13.3 % of the samples had a good quality of life. Among different methods of the complementary and alternative medicines, a significant relationship was found only between the use of relaxation and meditation techniques, and quality of life. In other words, those who used these methods had a higher quality of life than those who did not use them (P = 0.002). CONCLUSION: many hemodialysis patients have a poor quality of life. The users of some types of complementary and alternative medicines including relaxation and meditation techniques had higher quality of life than non-users.
