Sexual dysfunction is more than twice as frequent in Danish female predialysis patients compared to age- and gender-matched healthy controls.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to compare sexual dysfunction in Danish female predialysis patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) stage 4-5 with age-matched healthy women in Denmark. METHODS: Twenty-seven adult female predialysis patients (CKD stage 4-5 ~ creatinine clearance ≤ 30 ml/min) without diagnosed depression and 54 randomly assigned healthy female controls completed the questionnaires Female Sexual Function Index, Female Sexual Distress Scale, and the Major Depression Inventory. RESULTS: Predialysis patients reported lower Female Sexual Function Index scores compared to the controls (14.2 ± 2.1 vs. 20.1 ± 1.7, respectively, p = 0.048), more frequent sexual distress (44 vs. 22 %, respectively, p = 0.044), and more frequent sexual dysfunction (41 vs. 17 %, respectively, p = 0.041). There was no difference between the patients' and the controls' depression scores (12.2 ± 2.2 vs. 8.6 ± 1.1, respectively, p = 0.180). CONCLUSION: Sexual dysfunction was found to be more than two times as frequent in Danish female predialysis patients with CKD stage 4-5 compared to age- and gender-matched healthy controls, and this result emphasizes the need for attention towards sexual function in the treatment for CKD.

Assessment and clinical aspects of health-related quality of life in dialysis patients and patients with chronic kidney disease.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: It is relevant to investigate health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in dialysis and chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients in order to optimise treatment. The aim of this study was to investigate HRQOL in dialysis and CKD patients, to compare results from patients treated with hemodialysis (HD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD) and to investigate the prediction of dialysis quality control parameters (blood hemoglobin, plasma albumin, and Kt/V) and tobacco smoking in disease-specific HRQOL. METHODS: Seventy-one HD, 59 PD, and 63 CKD patients participated in the study. Dialysis quality control parameters were measured and the patients completed the questionnaire Kidney Disease Quality Of Life. RESULTS: PD patients rated Dialysis Staff Encouragement and Patient Satisfaction better than HD patients (p< or = 0.05). Dialysis patients scored significant lower than the general population in all generic HRQOL scales (p < or = 0.01), whereas CKD patients scored lower than the general population in 5 of 8 scales (p < or = 0.05). The dialysis quality parameters did not predict dialysis patients' disease specific HRQOL, but tobacco consumption was independently associated with low scores on a number of HRQOL scales. CONCLUSION: Based on the results, it is suggested to include elements of HRQOL as a supplement to standard quality control parameters. It is also suggested routinely to include information of the beneficial effects of physical activity already in the predialysis program, and to focus on smoking as a very important risk factor.

Reliability testing of the Danish version of the Kidney Disease Quality of Life Short Form.

OBJECTIVE: The questionnaire Kidney Disease Quality of Life Short Form version 1.3 (KDQOL-SF) is valuable for assessing the health-related quality of life in patients treated with chronic dialysis. The aim of this study was to translate and test the reliability of the KDQOL-SF for use in Denmark. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Translation into Danish and back-translation into English were performed. Pilot, field and internal consistency reliability tests were performed. RESULTS: Cronbach's alpha coefficients for the internal reliability test ranged from 0.77 to 0.93 for the eight generic scales. In a test involving all patients, two of the disease-specific scales had Cronbach's alpha coefficients of <0.70 ("social support" = 0.67; and "quality of social interaction" = 0.43). After removing one item from the scale "quality of social interaction", Cronbach's alpha reached 0.63. A test of the scores of peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients discovered low reliability for three disease-specific scales. The KDQOL-SF manual and the Danish manual for the Short Form 36 (SF36) differed in the scoring of four generic scales: "role limitation-physical", "bodily pain", "general health" and "social function". CONCLUSIONS: With the exception of the scale "quality of social interaction" the Danish translation of the KDQOL-SF achieved values in the internal consistency reliability test of the same level as the original U.S. version. When data were stratified according to dialysis treatment, the reliability of PD patients scores was lower. Generic data from the questionnaire SF36 should be scored according to the Danish SF36 manual.