Compliance with lifestyle recommendations in kidney allograft recipients.

BACKGROUND

Many factors affect long-term graft and patient survival. Compliance with lifestyle recommendation may be an important factor. Lifestyle modifications may play a therapeutic and protective role against graft failure and possible death.

METHODS

The aim of this work was to assess compliance with lifestyle recommendations among 110 kidney allograft recipients. All patients were asked to complete a questionnaire regarding life style, frequency of outpatient visits, self-control, diet, physical activity and addictions.

RESULTS

The mean age of the population was 48.79±13.18 years, and their mean time after transplantation was 69±44.5 years with a mean serum creatinine value of 1.45±0.7 mg/dL. Physicians were the major source of information (40%) for patients while in the hospital; nurses informed patients in only 5.5% of cases. The majority of patients (97.5%) attended regular outpatient clinic visits. A similar percentage of subjects regularly measured their blood pressure at home. One-fifth of the patient wrote a self-control diary. Only 55.5% of patients knew the immunosuppressive regimen, including the doses of the medications. An overweight condition was diagnosed in 39%, with obesity in 22%; 16% of the patients were smokers; one-fourth of the patients drank alcohol at least several times a month; 85.3% of patients did not change their diet after kidney transplantation; and one-half of the patients (64.2%) were not aware of dietary recommendations after kidney transplantation.

CONCLUSIONS

The majority of patients regularly attended the outpatient clinic and ingested immunosuppressive medications. However, their knowledge regarding diet, cancer prophylaxis, and self-control was insufficient. Therefore, there is a need to introduce more intense organizational and educational activities to improve patient knowledge.