DISEASE-SPECIFIC QUESTIONNAIRE FOR PATIENTS WITH A RENAL-TRANSPLANT

A disease-specific questionnaire to assess the quality of life of rena l transplant recipients was developed. A list of items of potential re levance to these patients was created and 50 transplant recipients rat ed the importance of each item. A combination of factor analysis and c linical judgment was then used to create the final questionnaire which consists of 25 questions in 5 dimensions (physical symptoms, fatigue, uncertainty/fear, appearance and emotions). The physical symptoms dim ension is patient specific. All questions are scored on a 7-point Like rt scale. The reproducibility of the questionnaire when it was adminis tered to stable transplant recipients was high (intraclass correlation coefficients between 0.82 and 0.91 for the 5 dimensions). The scores of all dimensions except appearance improved 6 months after transplant ation, when compared to pre-transplantation scores. Patients who had a well-functioning graft (creatinine < 250 mmol/1) had higher scores th an those with poorly functioning grafts. This questionnaire is easy to administer and is valid, reproducible in stable patients and responsi ve to change.