Health related quality of life in renal transplantation: 2 years of longitudinal follow-up

Abstract Background and objective Health related quality of life (HRQoL) is recognised as an outcome measure in kidney transplantation. In this study was assessed changes on HRQoL and kidney-specific symptoms, also was evaluated the effect of socio-demographic and clinical parameters on patient's perceived HRQoL. Patients and method A longitudinal study was done, at 5 time-points over 2 years after transplantation. To evaluate HRQoL the Kidney Disease Quality of Life Questionnaire Short Form was administrated, and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale was used to assess psychological distress. Results At 6 months after transplantation, patients had similar HRQoL scores compared to the general population. The improvement on effects of kidney disease domain could be considered as large ( η 2  = 0.29), and medium on burden of kidney disease domain ( η 2  = 0.12), work status domain ( η 2  = 0.12), and sexual function domain ( η 2  = 0.13). Psychological distress, depressive symptoms, haemoglobin, and serum creatinine had significant influence on patient's perceived HRQoL over 2 years after transplantation. Conclusions An improvement of HRQoL was observed on general and specific-targeted symptoms over 2 years after renal transplantation.