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During the congress, E-Posters will be accessible to all participants on the congress website 24/7, as well as in the E-poster stations in the congress center.
Preparing your E-Poster
Please review the E-Poster format requirements carefully when preparing your E-Poster. Should your E-Poster not meet the mentioned requirements, it may not be displayed as described above.
E-Poster Submission Deadline
Please prepare and upload your E-Poster no later than March 14, 2026 11.59PM CET. After this date, you will no longer be able to prepare and upload your E-poster and it will not be displayed and accessible on the congress website.
Please follow the instructions below to input your abstract title.
Abstract titles should be brief and reflect the content of the abstract.
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major global health challenge, affecting nearly 10% of the world’s population and causing over 1 million deaths annually. The burden, however, is unequally distributed—almost 80% of people with CKD live in low- and middle-income countries, where access to diagnostics, dialysis, transplantation, and follow-up care is often limited. Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is a critical outcome measure in CKD management, yet most evidence originates from high-income countries. This systematic review synthesizes HRQoL data specifically from low- and lower-middle income countries (LLMICs) to generate context-specific estimates for underserved populations.
Following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, we searched PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, Scopus, and Web of Science from January 2000 onwards for studies reporting validated HRQoL measures in CKD patients from LLMICs. We classified patients into five groups: early-stage CKD (1-3), advanced non-dialysis CKD (4-5), dialysis, post-transplant, and non-stratified CKD. Random-effects meta-analyses were conducted using inverse-variance weighting for groups with ≥3 observations from ≥2 studies. Meta-regression examined sources of heterogeneity, and publication bias was assessed using Egger's test.
We included 124 studies involving 24,207 participants from 24 LLMICs, with India most represented (28.2%). Progressive HRQoL deterioration was evident across CKD stages. SF-36 physical component summary scores declined from 41.7 (95% CI: 38.0-45.3) in early CKD to 35.5 (32.6-38.3) in advanced non-dialysis stages. Kidney-specific domains showed similar patterns: KDQOL burden of kidney disease scores decreased from 63.0 (60.3-65.6) in early CKD to 28.2 (22.0-34.3) in dialysis patients. Kidney transplantation was associated with substantial improvements, with SF-36 physical component scores reaching 44.0 (40.7-47.4) post-transplant versus 37.7 (34.0-41.3) in dialysis patients. WHOQOL-BREF physical domain scores increased from 46.2 (40.1-51.8) in dialysis to 68.2 (56.0-80.5) post-transplant. Meta-regression revealed study quality and design as significant predictors of heterogeneity in kidney-specific domains. Publication bias was detected in several kidney-specific domains among dialysis studies.
This first comprehensive synthesis of HRQoL data from LLMICs demonstrates progressive deterioration across CKD stages with substantial improvements following transplantation. Compared to global benchmarks largely derived from high-income countries, HRQoL scores in LLMICs are markedly lower, reflecting both the heavier patient burden and limited access to transplantation. These context-specific estimates can inform equitable service delivery, patient-centered program design, and resource allocation in resource-constrained settings where the majority of CKD patients reside.
