title: Long-term, self-reported health outcomes in kidney donors.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The wide use of healthy persons as kidney donors calls for awareness of risks associated with donation. Live kidney donation may impair quality of life (QOL) and result in fatigue. Long-term data on these issues are generally lacking in the donor population. Thus we aimed to investigate long-term self-reported health outcomes in a nationwide donor cohort.
  
  
  METHODS
  We assessed self-reported QOL, fatigue and psychosocial issues after donation in 217 donors representing 63 % of those who donated 8-12 years ago. QOL was measured using the generic Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36), fatigue using the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI) and psychosocial issues using donor specific questions. For each of the 8 domains of SF-36 and the 5 domains of MFI, we performed generalized linear regression.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Donors scored high on QOL with mean scores between 63.9 and 91.4 (scale 1-100) for the 8 subscales. Recognition from family and friends was associated with higher QOL scores in four domains. There were no significant gender differences. Fatigue scores were generally low. Females generally scored higher than males on all five dimensions of fatigue, although significantly only on two. Recipient still alive was associated with lower scores on mental fatigue. Regretting donors scored higher than average on all domains of fatigue. Recipient death, worries about own health and worsened relationship with the recipient influenced willingness to donate in retrospect. Donor age did not affect long-term health outcomes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Eight till 12 years after donation QOL scores were generally high and improved with recogniton from family and friends. Fatigue was independent of donor age and more pronounced in females and in those who regretted donation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Transplantation Medicine, Division of Cancer, Surgery and Transplantation, Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet, Postbox 4950 Nydalen, 0424, Oslo, Norway. k.b.meyer@medisin.uio.no.|Department of Transplantation, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. k.b.meyer@medisin.uio.no.
authors.forename: Käthe
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. a.k.wahl@medisin.uio.no.
authors.forename: Astrid Klopstad
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Wahl
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing Science, Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. i.t.bjork@medisin.uio.no.
authors.forename: Ida Torunn
authors.initials: IT
authors.lastname: Bjørk
authors.affiliation: Oslo Centre for Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Research Support Services, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway. twisloff@gmail.com.|Department of Health Management and Health Economics, Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. twisloff@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Torbjørn
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wisløff
authors.affiliation: Department of Transplantation Medicine, Division of Cancer, Surgery and Transplantation, Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet, Postbox 4950 Nydalen, 0424, Oslo, Norway. ahartman@ous-hf.no.|Department of Transplantation, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. ahartman@ous-hf.no.
authors.forename: Anders
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hartmann
authors.affiliation: Department of Transplantation Medicine, Division of Cancer, Surgery and Transplantation, Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet, Postbox 4950 Nydalen, 0424, Oslo, Norway. manderse@ous-hf.no.|Department of Health Sciences, Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. manderse@ous-hf.no.
authors.forename: Marit Helen
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Andersen
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001007:Anxiety / Q000209:etiology; D004644:Emotions; D005221:Fatigue / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D016030:Kidney Transplantation; D019520:Living Donors / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D005222:Mental Fatigue / Q000209:etiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D057566:Self Report; D012737:Sex Factors; D012744:Sex Ratio; D012938:Social Perception; D013997:Time Factors; D066027:Transplant Recipients / Q000523:psychology