Quality of life of caregivers of end-stage kidney disease patients: Caregivers or care recipients?

BACKGROUND: End-stage kidney disease (ESKD) patients require specific and continuous care, which affects caregivers' quality of life (QOL). It is necessary to define the basic problems and restrictions upon family caregivers of renal patients affecting their physical and psychological status. OBJECTIVES: The main objectives of this narrative review were to examine the literature over the past 10 years, to describe factors associated with QOL of caregivers of patients with ESKD, and to identify the level of subjective burden reported by caregivers. METHODS: A literature search was carried out using the following electronic databases: PubMed, Medscape, Science Direct, Scopus, PsychINFO and other scientific sources. Keywords included 'quality of life', 'caregivers', 'end stage kidney or renal disease patients', 'burden' and a combination of these terms. Only studies from January 2010 to December 2020 were included in this study. RESULTS: The results found that there was significant burden and distress experienced by caregivers that affected their QOL. Patients' QOL is associated with caregivers' QOL. The hours of caring per day and the long-term replacement therapy are associated with great burden. CONCLUSIONS: More awareness to caregivers' QOL is required to meet their needs, reduce anxiety and to improve patients' QOL. Caregiver support could empower and prepare them for initiation of replacement therapy. This can potentially enhance their diseased family members' QOL and could also restrict the use of health care system resources. Given how difficult it is to conceptualize QOL, a holistic approach to patients and caregivers require QOL assessment in each stage of the kidney disease.

Evaluation of Pupils' Knowledge about Kidney Health.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the level of renal function knowledge of primary school pupils in Greece. We conducted a cross-sectional study with a convenience sample of 220 pupils, coming from the 5th and 6th grades of general education schools. A questionnaire consisting of 11 questions was developed from scratch. However, based on an analysis of Cronbach's alpha values obtained when individual questions were deleted, two questions were removed from the analysis, and only nine remained for analysis and participated in the calculation of the knowledge score. Moreover, the gender and daily habits of pupils regarding water consumption and frequency of urination were recorded. Pupils had a high percentage of correct knowledge about the number of kidneys (95.2%), whether a child may have problems with the kidneys (85.5%) and whether a person can survive with one kidney (68.5%). Low levels of knowledge were observed in the function and role of the kidneys (36.4%), as well as the part of the body where the kidneys are located (30.9%). The median (interquartile range (IQR)) total knowledge score was 6 (5-7), with no difference detected between genders (p = 0.135). A statistically significant difference between pupils of 5th and 6th grades was found but the difference did not seem to be clinically significant (p = 0.035). The present research demonstrates that pupils' knowledge of renal function and the protection of their kidneys needs improvement.