Association between fatigue and depressive symptoms among kidney transplantation recipients: the mediating role of rumination

AIMS: Depressive symptoms are common among kidney transplantation recipients. Previous studies have reported that fatigue and rumination are risk factors for depressive symptoms. To date, the underlying mechanisms of fatigue, rumination, and depressive symptoms among kidney transplantation recipients remain unclear. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of depressive symptoms and investigate whether rumination mediates the association between fatigue and depressive symptoms among kidney transplantation recipients. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. METHODS: The study of 207 kidney transplantation recipients with an average age of 44.5 years was conducted from January 2017-July 2017. Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, fatigue, rumination, and depressive symptoms data were collected. For the descriptive analysis, Pearson correlations and mediation analysis based on the PROCESS macro were used. RESULTS: The prevalence of depressive symptoms among kidney transplantation recipients was 21.7%. Rumination mediated the association between fatigue and depressive symptoms and the indirect effect was 0.19 (95% confidence interval: 0.10-0.28). CONCLUSION: Depressive symptoms were highly prevalent among kidney transplantation recipients. Rumination exerts a mediating role between fatigue and depressive symptoms. IMPACT: This study alerts physicians and nurses for the importance of considering the mental health of these patients and contributes to the development of effective depression management interventions.