title: The comparison of general health status between hemodialysis and kidney transplant patients in university hospitals of Ahvaz, Iran.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Patients undergoing chronic hemodialysis and kidney transplant patients will be afflicted with various mental and physical problems, which may affect their general health. Previous studies have shown that, general health level in these patients is lower than general population. However, definitive studies comparing the general health between the two groups of patients undergoing hemodialysis and kidney transplant recipients have not been done, yet.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  In this study, we aimed to compare the general health between the two groups of chronic hemodialysis patients and kidney transplant recipients.
  
  
  METHODS
  This investigation was a cross-sectional descriptive-analytic study that has been conducted on 31 hemodialysis and 33 kidney transplant patients in two university hospitals of Ahvaz, Iran. Data were collected through a general health questionnaire (GHQ-28) and they were analyzed with SPSS software.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean score of general health was 28.8 and 27.57 in hemodialysis and kidney transplant patients, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups, (p =0.7). Also, anxiety, serious depression, physical symptoms and social function were not significantly different between the two groups (p>0.5).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this study, no difference of general health level between hemodialysis and kidney transplantation was observed.
authors.affiliation: Department of psychiatry, Golestan Hospital, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran.
authors.forename: Hatam
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Boostani
authors.affiliation: Department of Nephrology, Golestan Hospital, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ghorbani
authors.affiliation: Department of psychiatry, Golestan Hospital, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran.
authors.forename: Maryam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Heydarazadzadeh
keywords: End-stage renal disease; Hemodialysis; Intima–media thickness