Quality of life of living kidney donors: the short-form 36-item health questionnaire survey.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the psychological and social effects of kidney donation on kidney donors by using the short-form 36-item health survey (SF-36) as the quality-of-life questionnaire.


METHODS
A total of 104 living donor nephrectomies have been performed at Kobe University Hospital and Nishinomiya Prefectural Hospital. We mailed the questionnaires to donors or handed them out directly at the outpatient clinic. The first part of the questionnaire consisted of the SF-36 (limitations on physical functioning because of health problems) and the second part consisted of 15 questions about donation-related stress, expenses incurred, physical changes, and pre-existing factors such as relationship to the recipients.


RESULTS
The SF-36 and the questionnaire about donor satisfaction were completed by 69 donors (48 women and 21 men; mean age 52.1 +/- 8.2 years), only 6 of whom (9%) reported minor complications with the donor operation. The SF-36 scores of our donors were not significantly different from that of the general U.S. population and U.S. donors. In some categories (physical functioning, role-physical, bodily pain, general health, vitality, and mental health), our donors scored slightly higher than the U.S. general population. Although 97% of the donors would make the same choice again, 3% believed that donating had had a negative impact on their health, and 16% reported negative financial consequences.


CONCLUSIONS
The quality of life for kidney donors was not affected by donor nephrectomy. Living kidney transplantation seems to be suitable for the rescue of patients with end-stage renal disease. Better psychological and technical preparation for surgery and more consistent follow-up may reduce the negative outcomes even further.
Isotani
Shuji
S
Division of Urology, Department of Organs Therapeutics, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, Japan.
Fujisawa
Masato
M
Ichikawa
Yasuji
Y
Ishimura
Takeshi
T
Matsumoto
Osamu
O
Hamami
Gaku
G
Arakawa
Soichi
S
Iijima
Kazumoto
K
Yoshikawa
Norishige
N
Nagano
Shunsuke
S
Kamidono
Sadao
S
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000601:surgery; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019520:Living Donors / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D009392:Nephrectomy / Q000523:psychology; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014019:Tissue Donors / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014481:United States