Assessment of quality of life in a single centre dialysis population usingthe KDQOL-SF (TM) questionnaire

Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is a valid marker of outcome for chr onic dialysis therapy. A wide range of questionnaires are now available whi ch assess different aspects of an individual's health. Appreciation of thos e factors that contribute to explaining HRQOL items remains poorly defined. The development of disease-specific questionnaires such as KDQOL-SF(Tm), s hould allow for such questions to be better answered. A cross-sectional ana lysis of our chronic dialysis population was made using the KDQOL-SF(Tm) qu estionnaire. By multiple linear regression analysis demographic, clinical a nd dialysis-related factors were assessed for their contribution to the HRQ OL in this population. The HRQOL of these patients was also compared agains t a general population sample. From a total of 190 chronic dialysis patient s, 146 completed the KDQOL-SF(Tm) questionnaire. The haemodialysis (HD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients were similar with respect to most demogr aphic, clinical and dialysis variables except for haemoglobin and albumin w hich were significantly (p < 0.05) greater in the peritoneal and haemodialy sis populations respectively. Compared to the general population, the HRQOL of dialysis patients was impaired for all SF-36 subscales. Use of the dise ase-specific components of KDQOL-SF(Tm) discriminated between dialysis moda lity for our dialysis population. Multiple linear regression analysis demon strated that 27.5 to 42.7% of the variance in the SF-36 subscales could be explained. Satisfactory sleep, dialysis related symptoms, effect of kidney disease on lifestyle and burden of kidney disease were found to be the most important determinants of HRQOL for this population.