Distressing symptoms and health-related quality of life in patients with chronic kidney disease.

BACKGROUND

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is an incapacitating illness associated with distressing symptoms (DS) that have negative impact on patients' health-related quality of life (HRQOL).

AIM

To assess the severity of DS and their relationships with HRQOL among patients with CKD in Jordan.

METHODS

A descriptive cross-sectional design was used. A convenience sampling approach was used to recruit the participants. Patients with CKD ( = 140) who visited the outpatient clinics in four hospitals in Amman between November 2021 and December 2021 were included.

RESULTS

The Edmonton Symptom Assessment System was used to measure the severity of the DS while the Short Form-36 tool was used to measure the HRQOL. Participants' mean age was 50.9 (SD = 15.14). Most of them were males ( = 92, 65.7%), married ( = 95, 67.9%), and unemployed ( = 93, 66.4%). The highest DS were tiredness (mean = 4.68, SD = 2.98) and worse well-being (mean = 3.69, SD = 2.43). The highest HRQOL mean score was for the bodily pain scale with a mean score of 68.50 out of 100 (SD = 32.02) followed by the emotional well-being scale with mean score of 67.60 (SD = 18.57).

CONCLUSION

Patients with CKD had suboptimal HRQOL, physically and mentally. They suffer from multiple DS that have a strong association with diminished HRQOL such as tiredness and depression. Therefore, healthcare providers should be equipped with the essential knowledge and skills to promote individualized strategies that focusing on symptom management.