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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.
The prevalence of kidney failure (KF) is rising globally, and patients on maintenance hemodialysis (HD) face complex physical, emotional, and social challenges that may not be captured by traditional clinical assessments. Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) offer structured insights into patients’ perceptions of their health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and symptom burden. The Kidney Disease Quality of Life 36-item short form (KDQOL-36™) is a validated and widely used instrument assessing both generic and kidney disease-specific aspects of HRQoL. Despite increasing emphasis on patient-centred care, local data on HRQoL among HD patients in Singapore are limited. Understanding symptom burden and the perceived impact of kidney disease can guide interventions and improve holistic care delivery.
We aim to evaluate HRQoL, symptom burden, and the psychometric performance of the KDQOL-36™ among Singaporean HD patients. We conducted a cross-sectional study of all adult HD patients who had been on dialysis for ≥3 months at the Ang Mo Kio Thye Hua Kwan HD Centre. The KDQOL-36™ questionnaire was administered to patients by dialysis nurses or medical students in English or Chinese according to language preference. Internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha (acceptable threshold ≥0.70). Ceiling and floor effects were defined as >20% of respondents achieving the maximum or minimum score for a domain. A Kidney Summary Score (KSS) was derived as a composite of the symptoms, burden, and effects of kidney disease domains. Statistical analyses included descriptive summaries and internal reliability testing.
Of 83 eligible patients, 81 responded (response rate = 97.6%). The median age [IQR] was 71 [15] years, median dialysis vintage 17 [30] months, and most were male (60.5%), Chinese (81.5%), and on thrice-weekly HD (80%). Median [IQR] domain scores were: SF-12 Physical Health Composite 40.61 [10.14], SF-12 Mental Health Composite 49.29 [9.85], Burden of Kidney Disease 31.25 [29.35], Symptoms/Problems 79.17 [16.39], and Effects of Kidney Disease 78.13 [25.87]. Internal consistency was good across most domains (α = 0.79–0.87), except for SF-12 Mental Health Composite (α = 0.68). Ceiling and floor effects were minimal (<20%). The KSS median was 62.5 [30.2]. Scores were comparable to other international cohorts, except for the Burden of Kidney Disease domain, which was lower in our population, possibly reflecting cultural, caregiving, or healthcare system differences influencing patients’ perception of disease impact.
Singaporean HD patients demonstrated variable quality of life and symptom burden, with the KDQOL-36™ showing good internal consistency and feasibility for local use. Routine incorporation of PROMs into dialysis practice can enhance person-centred care by capturing dimensions of well-being not reflected by biochemical measures, guiding individualized interventions, and monitoring longitudinal changes in patient outcomes. Future multicentre studies should validate these findings, explore determinants of HRQoL variation, and evaluate longitudinal responsiveness to interventions.
