Anxiety in patients receiving hemodialysis treatment,the effect of health-protective and health-promoting behaviors on fatigue and pain levels

This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted to examine the effect of health-protective and health-promoting behaviors on anxiety, fatigue and pain levels of hemodialysis patients. The study was conducted between June 5 and August 5, 2023 with 257 patients who were treated in dialysis centers in Ankara and met the inclusion criteria. Data were collected using the Patient Information Form, Beck Anxiety Scale (BAI), Brief Fatigue Inventory (BFI), Brief Pain Inventory (PAI), and Health Promoting and Protective Behaviors Scale (HPPBS). In the analysis of the data, SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 25 statistical programs were used, T-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Post hoc (Tukey, LSD), Pearson correlation and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) were used for frequency and percentage, mean and standard deviation values. According to the findings, 16% of the patients had mild, 33.1% moderate, 48.6% severe anxiety; 20.6% mild, 45.5% moderate, 33.9% severe fatigue; 51.4% mild, 32.7% moderate, 16.0% severe pain. It was found that patients who were not working, had low education and income levels, and were older had higher levels of fatigue, pain and anxiety and lower levels of health-promoting protective behaviors (p<0.05). According to the results of correlation and SEM, it was revealed that anxiety, fatigue and pain levels decreased as health-promoting and protective behaviors increased in patients. It was determined that SSIQ predicted 3.8% of the change in pain and fatigue levels. The implementation of health- protective and health-promoting interventions by nurses to hemodialysis patients will make it possible to improve the quality of life of patients.