Skin dryness and dermatologic life quality in the patients who receive hemodialysis treatment

This descriptive study was conducted to evaluate the dry skin and dermatological quality of life in the hemodialysis patients. The population of the study consisted of 225 patients who underwent hemodialysis for at least 6 months between January 1 and March 1, 2018, and the sample consisted of 175 patients who met the inclusion criteria and accepted to participate in the study. Data included patients with no communication disability, no treatment for anxiety and depression, no previously diagnosed skin disease, and regular hemodialysis treatment. Ethical apparoval was obtained from the institutions. Patient information form, skin moisture measurement device and dermatological quality of life index were used in the data collection. The data were collected by the researcher with the face to face interview. Data was done with the analysis Shapiro-Wilk test, t test, One-Way Anova and Pearson Correlation tests. The mean body skin moisture of the hemodıalysis patients was %25.91±1.37(23.64-31.60) and 99.4 % of the patients had dry skin. Significant positive correlation was found between body skin moisture mean measurement and serum BUN input-output, creatinine input value, and the daily water consumption and negative coreelation with age. The mean the dermatologic quality of life score was 11.88±4.64. Nearly half of the 47.4 % of the patients had poor quality of the dermatologic life. Dermatologic life quality was lower in patients aged 65 and over, had skin dryness and had aching and was higher in male patients. A significant negative correlation was found between the general body skin moisture scores of hemodialysis patients and the dermatological quality of life index (r= -0.441;p˂0.001). Skin dryness explains 19% of the changing in the dermatalogic life quality. As a result, it was found that almost all of the patients had low skin moisture mean measurements, which means that their skin was dry. It as found out that as the general mean measurements of the body skin moisture of the hemodialysis patients get lower and the dryness gets increase, the dermatologic life quality gets lower. Hemodialysis nurses regularly quantitatively and qualitatively diagnose skin dryness of their patients. It should increase the quality of dermatological life by providing care and education to patients for skin health. Key Words: Chronic Renal Failure, Skin Problems, Dermatological Quality of Life, Nursing