Health related quality of life in renal transplantation: 2 years of longitudinal follow-up

Background and objective: Health related quality of life (HRQoL) is recognized as an outcome measure in kidney transplantation. In this study was assessed changes on HRQoL and kidney-specific symptoms, also was evaluated the effect of socio-demographic and clinical parameters on patient's perceived HRQoL. Patients and method: A longitudinal study was done, at 5 time-points over 2 years after transplantation. To evaluate HRQoL the Kidney Disease Quality of Life Questionnaire Short Form was administrated, and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale was used to assess psychological distress. Results: At 6-months after transplantation, patients had similar HRQoL scores compared to the general population. The improvement on effects of kidney disease domain could be considered as large (eta(2)=0.29), and medium on burden of kidney disease domain (eta(2)=0.12), work status domain (eta(2)=0.12), and sexual function domain (eta(2)=0.13). Psychological distress, depressive symptoms, haemoglobin, and serum creatinine had significant influence on patient's perceived HRQoL over 2 years after transplantation. Conclusions: An improvement of HRQoL was observed on general and specific-targeted symptoms over 2 years after renal transplantation. (C) 2017 Elsevier Espana, S.L.U. All rights reserved.