Quality of life in end-stage renal disease patients after successful kidney transplantation: Development of the ESRD symptom checklist - Transplantation module

The End-Stage Renal Disease Symptom Checklist Transplantation Module (ESRD- SCL(R)) was developed to assess the specific physical and psychological qua lity of life of renal transplant recipients, with a special focus on side e ffects of immune system suppression therapy. A list of potentially relevant items was administered to 458 transplant recipients, The symptoms present in >20% of patients were chosen, and factor analysis was used to create the final questionnaire which consists of 43 items in six dimensions: (1) limi ted physical capacity (10 items; internal consistency: Cronbach's alpha = 0 .85); (2) limited cognitive capacity (8 items, alpha = 0.82); (3)cardiac an d renal dysfunction (7 items, alpha = 0.76); (4) side effects of corticoste roids (5 items, alpha = 0.77); (5) increased growth of gum and hair (5 item s, alpha = 0.78), and (6) transplantation-associated psychological distress (8 items, alpha = 0.80). All questions are scored on a five-point Likert s cale, Validity was demonstrated in correlation with corresponding SF-36 sca les and in a stepwise hierarchical regression model predicting the subscale s of the ESRD-SCL by sociodemographic and medical data. The ESRD-SCL was fo und to have adequate reliability, test-retest correlations in a subsample o f 88 stable patients after 1 year, and construct validity.