Determination of life quality following liver transplantation

ABSTRACT DETERMINATION OF LIFE QUALITY FOLLOWING LIVER TRANSPLANTATION The research was conducted to perform life quality following liver transplantation. The sampling of the research which was performed in accordance with prospective and descriptive research design consists of 103 volunteer patients who applied to Malatya İnönü University Turgut Özal Medical Center General Surgery Clinic between January 01-May 15, 2015, who had liver transplantation and complied with the sampling criteria. The data was collected using personal details and disease information form, information status and training subjects form and SF-36 life quality scale form. The statistical analysis of the data was performed on SPSS 21.0 for Windows software. Number (n), percentage (%), average±standard deviation, median, highest-lowest number indication were used to indicate the data and t-test, Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal Wallis Test were used in independent groups in comparative statistics. Level of statistical significance was taken as p<0.05. The physical health life quality score average was found to be 39.90±8.53 and mental health life quality score average to be 43.93±9.86 in the research. The difference between physical health aspect and gender, marital status and chronic disease; and the difference between mental health and education were statistically significant in SF-36 life quality scale of the patients who had liver transplantation (p<0.05). Furthermore, the difference between physical health aspect of the same patient group and the time past subsequent to transplantation, source of transplantation and the presence of negative conditions extending post-operative hospitalization was also statistically significant (p<0.05). The life quality of the patients who had liver transplantation was found to be moderate. Physical health life quality of the male patients and single patients is higher than the others. The mental health life quality improves as the level of education increases. Another finding of the research indicates that physical health life quality improves as the time past subsequent to transplantation increases. Besides, the physical health life quality of the patients who didn't have any condition to cause extending post-operative hospitalization is higher compared to those who had and also the physical health life quality of those who had transplantation from a cadaver is higher compared to those who had transplantation from a live donor. Key Words: Liver Transplantation, Life Quality, SF-36, Nursing