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Chronic kidney disease (CKD) results from the partial or total loss of kidney excretory function and consequently requires conservative treatment, dialysis or kidney transplantation. Once established, CKD can cause numerous compromises to patients' health and quality of life (QoL). QoL is represented by a wide range of dimensions involving physical, psychological, social and environmental aspects, among others. It can be assessed, making it possible to learn about the effectiveness of treatments and interventions carried out by health professionals, as well as the impact of a disease on the lives of those affected and their families.
264 patients were interviewed, 134 on hemodialysis treatment and 134 on conservative treatment, treated at the nefrology service between May 2022 and April 2023, using a sociodemograhpic and clinical questionnaire and the Medical Outcomes Short-form Health Survey (SF-36), which has a multi-item scale and assesses eight different dimensions of health: functional capacity, physical aspect, pain, general state of health, vitality, social aspects, emotional aspects and mental health. Patients aged 18 or over, with more than 3 months of hemodialysis and conservative treatment, who were in good cognitive condition to answer the survey questions were selected. The research was authorized by the Teaching and Research Management (TRM) of the Amazonas University Hospital (n.:23531.011506/2021-84) and by the Research Ethics Committee (REC) of the Federal University of São Paulo-UNIFESP (n:0071/2022. Opinion: 5.411.015).
The sociodemographic and clinical variables of the 264 patients interviewed showed, after a comparative study of the groups, that the average age of all the patients was 54.6 years; it was observed that 52.7% were male, 51% married; 68% were professionally inactive, 63.6% had a high school education, 65% did not have a caregiver, 52% had their own transportation to the hospital, 90.8% had systemic arterial hypertension and 84.2% had diabetes mellitus, the average treatment time in years for hemodialysis patients was 5.28 and for the conservative group it was 6.96. All the QoL scores were very compromised and the dimensions with average values below 50 points for the patients undergoing conservative treatment were: physical aspects 12.3; emotional aspects 29.0; functional capacity 30.9; general state of health 36.0; vitality 45.6; social aspects 46.2 and five dimensions for the group of patients undergoing hemodialysis treatment did not reach 60 points: functional capacity 36.7; physical aspects 18.3; general state of health 46.4; emotional aspects 23.2 and vitality 58.0.
All dimensions of the QoL of patients with CKD undergoing conservative and hemodialysis treatment are compromised and 6 of these scored below 50 points. Short- and medium-term measures need to be taken to improve patients' QoL.