Is there any effect of compliance on clinical parameters of renal transplant recipients?

Noncompliance with regard to diet, medications and routine physician visits is frequently observed among some patient groups. This results in late graft dysfunction and behavior loss. In the present study, we defined compliance as attendance at 80% or more outpatient visits. The study included 63 cadaveric and 158 living-related renal transplant recipients namely, 150 men and 76 women of 8 to 70 years of age (median 38 +/- 12) who were operated between 1986 and 2001. Demographic data, number of visits attended per month, cigarette smoking, and alcohol intake were probed with a questionnaire that was delivered to the patients, 8 of whom died; hemophagocytic syndrome (n = 4), cardiovascular disease (n = 2), Kaposi' sarcoma (n = 1), and cerebrovascular bleeding (n = 1). Twenty-three patients had lost their graft. Compliance among men was lower than among women, a result that trended toward statistical significance (P =.087). Compliance was not related to marital status (P =.297), but tended to increase with educational background (P =.059). Graft loss (P =.546) and aging (P =.509) were not related to compliance. There was no relationship between compliance and mortality rate (P =.526). Interestingly, living-related kidney transplant recipients showed lower compliance than cadaveric kidney recipients, a result that was statistically significant (P =.04). Noncompliance was also related to cigarette smoking during the pre- and posttransplant periods (P =.008 and P =.03, respectively), as well as alcohol intake (P =.000). In conclusion, male gender and living-related donation are related to noncompliance, but (in contrast with literature) not young age, graft loss, or mortality. Compliance increases with educational status of the patients. Smoking and alcohol intake are closely related to noncompliance.