Evaluation of quality of life in patiens with chronic kidney disease, end-stage renal failure and kidney transplantation in Gaziantep University Faculty of Medicine

The aim of this study is to evaluate anxiety, depression, self-esteem and quality of life scores of patients followed as chronic kidney disease at Pediatric Nephrology Clinic in Gaziantep University Faculty of Medicine; and to compare these scores with clinical features, laboratory findings, disease stage and treatment methods of patients.A total of 44 patients and their parents are included in our study with 23 (52.3%) females and 21 ( 47.7%) males. The mean age of patients were 12.52±2.85 (8-18) years. When we evaluated at stages of chronic renal failure; 18 patients (40.9%) had stage 5, 14 patients (31.8%) had stage 4, 12 patients (27.2%) had stage 3 or under. There was no significant difference between quality of life scores and parental education levels, duration of disease, frequency of peritonitis, presence of headache, and height-weight values (p>0.05). According to renal replacement therapy, quality of life scores were found significantly lower in dialysis patients (p <0.05). Also there was a negative correlation between quality of life scores and the frequency of drug usage in a day and number of drugs used by patients (p <0.05). Quality of life scores were significantly lower in patients with presence of hypertensive crisis, bone pain and sleep problems (p <0.05). There was a negative correlation between quality of life scores and anxiety/ depression scores (p <0.05). İn conclusion; we suggest that, to struggle with chronic diseases accompanied by psychology consulting and to educate the patients about living with the disease at early stages of life may reduce psychological disorders in elderly. KEY WORDS: Chronic Kidney Disease, Quality of Life, Anxiety, Depression.