A Study of Physical and Psychological Domains of Quality of Life in Kidney Transplantation Patients in Kerman City, Iran

Renal transplantation as a treatment of choice in most of the patients with ESRD (End Stage Renal Disease) improves physical domain of quality of life, but because of the effects of immunosuppressive drags, ongoing medical care may be required, and this problem influence on psychological, economic, and social status, and therefore quality of life. The objective of this study was to evaluate physical and psychological domains of quality of life in kidney transplantation patients in Kerman City. In this descriptive analytical study, quality of life of 105 kidney transplantation patients in Kerman city was assessed using SF36 questionnaire. The data were analyzed by Statistical Tests, such as independent t-test, Spearman’s correlation coefficient, and ANOVA. Significance level was considered to be p<0.05. The mean score of quality of life in kidney transplantations patients was 60.95±18.01, physical domain score was 59.77±14.78, and psychological domain score was 62.58±10.22. The maximum score was related to role limitation due to physical problems (72.25) and minimum score was related to general health (58.25). Analysis of the psychological domain scores according to demographic variables showed no significant difference, but in the physical domain, this difference was significant in terms of age and marital status (p≤0.05). The results of this study showed that kidney transplantation patients have relatively favorable quality of life, and psychological domain scores of quality of life were higher than those of physical domain.