Depressed mood, usual activity level, and continued employment after starting dialysis.
OBJECTIVE
When patients start dialysis, their employment rate declines and disability benefits are an option. With patient sociodemographic and clinical characteristics including disability income status controlled, we investigated the significance of depressed mood and usual activity level as predictors of patients' continued employment after dialysis start.


METHODS
Incident patients from 296 randomly selected dialysis clinics were surveyed in the Comprehensive Dialysis Study (CDS). Participants provided information about employment status, disability income status, education, depressive symptoms measured by the Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2), and usual activity level/energy expenditure measured by the Human Activity Profile. Age, gender, race, insurance, diabetes, inability to ambulate or transfer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cardiovascular conditions, and hemoglobin and serum albumin values at treatment start were obtained from US Renal Data System files. Dialysis modality was defined at time of interview.


RESULTS
Among 585 CDS participants who worked in the previous year, 191 (32.6%) continued working after dialysis start. On the basis of the PHQ-2 cutoff score ≥3, 12.1% of patients who remained employed had possible or probable depression, compared with 32.8% of patients who were no longer employed. In adjusted analyses, higher Human Activity Profile scores were associated with increased likelihood of continued employment, and there was a borderline association between lower PHQ-2 scores and continued employment.


CONCLUSIONS
Screening and management of depressive symptoms and support for increased activity level may facilitate patients' opportunity for continued employment after dialysis start, along with generally improving their overall quality of life.
Kutner
Nancy G
NG
Rehabilitation/Quality of Life Special Studies Center, United States Renal Data System, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. nkutner@emory.edu
Zhang
Rebecca
R
Huang
Yijian
Y
Johansen
Kirsten L
KL
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D000368:Aged; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000628:therapy; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D018868:Insurance, Disability; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D012042:Registries; D006435:Renal Dialysis / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000523:psychology; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014481:United States