Quality of life of living kidney donors in Brazil: an evaluation by the short form-36 and the WHOQOL-bref questionnaires.

INTRODUCTION

There are few studies that evaluate donors' quality of life (QOL) following renal transplant in developing countries. This study was conducted to evaluate post-donation QOL of Brazilian living kidney donors using SF-36 and WHOQOL-bref questionnaires.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS

Demographic, socioeconomic and the QOL data were analyzed utilizing SF-36 and WHOQOL-bref questionnaires of 69 living kidney donors and compared with 68 non-donor subjects from the same community.

RESULTS

The donors and controls were similar as for gender and ethnicity, predominating the female. There was no difference in the educational level or socioeconomic class between the groups, the lower income being more prevalent. The evaluation of the donors' QOL was not significantly different from that of the control group. In some domains of the SF-36 and of the WHOQOL-bref questionnaires, donors scored higher than controls. Even the evaluation of the QOL of donors whose recipients had suffered loss of the graft or death following renal transplantation, showed in a general manner a similar QOL to the controls.

CONCLUSIONS

Living kidney donors in a mainly low-income segment of the Brazilian population present a post-donation quality of life equal or superior to that of the non-donor population with the same socioeconomic profile. The two generic instruments used to evaluate the quality of life presented similar results.