DO RETROSPECTIVE AND PROSPECTIVE QUALITY-OF-LIFE ASSESSMENTS DIFFER FOR PANCREAS-KIDNEY TRANSPLANT RECIPIENTS

The literature indicates that chronically ill patients have a remarkab le capacity to adapt to their illness. For example, they will generall y report a better quality of life (QoL) than individuals in the genera l population who are asked to imagine themselves as chronically ill an d to rate their QoL. The present study further explores this phenomeno n in type I diabetic transplant recipients with end-stage renal diseas e. In a prospective, longitudinal study, we assessed the QoL in 22 pat ients, both before and after they received a combined pancreas-kidney transplant. After transplantation, the patients were also asked to ass ess their pretransplant QoL by rating it on a 10-point scale. What we found was that prior to transplantation, QoL was prospectively given a mean rating of 5.23; this score increased to 7 after a successful tra nsplant procedure. During follow-up assessments 5, 12, and 18 months a fter successful transplantation, patients retrospectively scored their pretransplant QoL as 3.27, 3.14, and 3.05, respectively. We conclude that when type I diabetic patients with end-stage renal disease underg o a transplant procedure to improve their health status, they re-evalu ate their pretransplant QoL, and this retrospective assessment is sign ificantly lower than their prospective one when transplantation is suc cessful.