The Effect of Pre-Transplant Psychosocial Problems on Kidney Transplantation Outcomes

The present study aimed to evaluate the association between the pre-transplant psychosocial profile and kidney transplant candidates' clinical outcomes. The present study population included all patients assessed for kidney transplant candidacy in Sina Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences. The 42 patients who were candidates for kidney transplantation were enrolled in the present study. The mental health was measured by psychosocial assessment of candidates for transplantation (PACT) questionnaire. A global score of equal or lower than 2 was categorized as a low PACT score and equal and higher than 3 was defined as a high score. PACT questionnaire was completed before the kidney transplantation for each patient. The outcomes of our study were post-transplant dialysis, time of dialysis, hospital stay after transplant, rejection after transplant, time of rejection after transplant, delayed graft function, re-hospitalization after transplant, and time of re-hospitalization that were followed after transplantation. A total of 42 patients underwent kidney transplantation; 15 ( 35.7%) patients had a poor PACT score while 27 (64.3%) patients had a high PACT score. There were no significant differences in age, sex, marital status, literacy, insurance, supplementary insurance, smoking, being head of household between the two groups. There were no significant differences between the two groups in clinical characteristics after kidney transplantation (P-value > 0.05). In our study, there was no significant association between psychosocial status and clinical outcomes and it has been suggested that more studies are needed in this field