Avaliação da qualidade de vida e das atividades cotidianas comprometidas do paciente renal crônico em tratamento hemodialítico

Abstract

Technological improvements in dialysis have contributed for the increased survival of chronic renal patients, however, undergoing dialysis treatment for an indeterminate time might interfere in the quality of life of these patients. This study was aimed at evaluating the quality of life of chronic renal patients undergoing hemodialysis and identifying the activities that might have a negative impact on their quality of life. This is a descriptive and exploratory study, including 125 chronic renal patients undergoing hemodialysis (74 men and 51 women), mean age 53.1±14.6 years, mean time on hemodialysis 28.5±23 months. The generic SF-36 quality of life questionnaire and a semi-structured interview were used as data collection instruments. Data was subject to a descriptive statistical analysis, the chi-squared test, Pearson s correlation coefficient and the proportion comparison test, with a significance level of 5%. The results showed impaired quality of life of the patients, with lower scores for physical aspects dimensions (32.3±11.3), emotional aspects (46.1±16.3) and vitality (48.7±7.3). Quality of life variables regarding genders did not have a significant difference. There was a negative correlation between time on hemodialysis and physical component (r=-0.75, p<0.001), indicating that the longer the time on hemodialysis the lower are the scores found for this component and there was no significant correlation between time on hemodialysis and mental component (r=-0.29). Physical and recreational activities were the most affected in the global sample and in the sample stratified by gender. There was a negative correlation between time on hemodialysis and daily activities: work (p=0.0014), domestic activities (p=0.0014) and practical activities (0.0459). Data have shown impairment in several of the analyzed quality of life aspects in chronic renal patients undergoing hemodialysis and have pointed out that daily physical and recreational activities were the most affected ones. Our results have allowed the conclusion that there were no evidences of statistically significant differences in quality of life compared to gender; time on hemodialysis correlated with quality of life and daily activities had a negative correlation with physical component and work, domestic and practical activities. These results are important predictive factors to improve quality of life parameters in these patients.