Health-related quality of life among dialysis patients in Seattle and Aichi

We used the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey to compare health-related qual ity of life (HRQOL) between 104 dialysis patients in Seattle, WA, and 2,178 patients in Aichi, Japan. Compared with Aichi patients, Seattle patients h ad lower scores on three scales related to physical HRQOL: Physical Functio ning (PF; P = 0.03), Role-Physical (RP; P = 0.004), and Vitality (VT; P < 0 .001). However, scores related to mental HRQOL were higher for Seattle pati ents compared with those of Aichi patients, which included scores for Role- Emotional (RE; P = 0.005) and Mental Health (MH; P < 0.001). Scores for Bod ily Pain, General Health Perception, and Social Functioning did not differ significantly between the two groups. These differences persisted even afte r potential confounding factors were controlled for. However, after taking into account national norm data for the United States and Japan, difference s in PF and VT disappeared, whereas differences in RP, RE, and MH persisted . These results suggest that the higher scores for PF and VT in Aichi patie nts were partly explained by the higher physical HRQOL of the Japanese gene ral population. Although these data may not be representative of the total dialysis populations in the United States and Japan, they suggest potential differences in HRQOL between patients in the two countries. Additional res earch is needed to confirm these results and understand the factors associa ted with these differences. The findings suggest the need for further atten tion to the physical limitations of US dialysis patients and the mental hea lth of Japanese dialysis patients. (C) 2001 by the National Kidney Foundati on, Inc.