The role of subjective cognitive complaints in self-management among haemodialysis patients: a cross-sectional study

Background Subjective cognitive complaints refer to self-experienced difficulties with everyday cognitive tasks. Although there has been a fair amount of research on cognitive impairments and cognitive complaints in end-stage renal disease, the practical implications of these complaints remain unclear. The current study aims to examine the associations of cognitive complaints with sociodemographic and clinical variables, mood, as well as key patient-reported outcomes, i.e., self-efficacy, self-management skills, and treatment adherence. Methods A total of 305 haemodialysis patients (mean age = 53.97 years, 42.6% female) completed the Kidney Disease Quality of Life Cognitive Function subscale, a brief measure of cognitive complaints. The recommended cut-off point of 60 was used to identify probable cognitive impairment. Measures of self-efficacy, self-management skills (i.e., symptom coping, health monitoring, health service navigation), treatment adherence, and mood symptoms were also administered. Between-group comparisons and correlational analyses were performed to examine associations of cognitive complaints with sociodemographic, clinical, and health behaviour variables. Mediation analyses were also conducted to investigate the mediating role of self-efficacy on the relationship between cognitive complaints and treatment adherence. Results Nearly a quarter (23.0%) of haemodialysis patients reported cognitive complaints indicative of clinical impairments. Risk of probable impairments was higher for patients with hypertension, diabetes, those diagnosed with end-stage renal disease at an older age, and those with shorter time on dialysis. Subjective cognitive complaints (both rates of probable impairments as per cut-off and continuous scores) were significantly associated with lower disease and treatment self-efficacy, poorer self-management skills, lower treatment adherence, as well as higher symptoms of distress. Mediation analysis indicated that treatment self-efficacy mediated the relationship between cognitive complaints and treatment adherence. Conclusions The current study demonstrated the clinical characteristics of haemodialysis patients who report cognitive complaints indicative of probable cognitive impairments and showed the associations of these complaints with self-management outcomes. Future studies should adopt more comprehensive measures of cognitive complaints and longitudinal designs to confirm the current findings.