title: Quality of life assessment in end-stage renal disease patients with maintenance hemodialysis therapy.
abstract: This is a pilot study assessing the quality of life for a total of twenty uremic patients being treated with maintenance hemodialysis. It includes eight males and twelve females with a mean age of fifty three years, having been on hemodialysis for an average of forty-five months (from five to 143 months). The quality of life study was obtained from a structured questionnaire, which contained 10 categories including: sense of well-being, sense of mood, family life, marriage life, neighborhood relationships, friend relationships, working ability, job condition, intelligence condition and life satisfaction. Each category consisted of 3 to 5 items, with a maximum score of 100 points. Among these 20 patients, the highest score on the quality of life study is marriage life with 80.4 +/- 10.0 points, the lowest score is life satisfaction with 59.7 +/- 15.3 points. There was no significant difference in the scores of quality of life between different sex groups. The scores in the sense of well-being group greater than 60 years were lower than those less than 60 years with a significant difference (P less than 0.05). A significant difference was also found in both the sense of well-being and sense of mood depending on the duration of hemodialysis therapy. Those who received hemodialysis therapy more than 3 years produced better scores in the sense of well-being and sense of mood category than those who received hemodialysis less than 3 years.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Tri-Service General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
authors.forename: N F
authors.initials: NF
authors.lastname: Chu
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Ferng
authors.forename: S D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Shieh
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011788:Quality of Life; D006435:Renal Dialysis