Objective: The evaluation of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is becoming an important measure of the outcomes of kidney transplantation. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether deterioration of renal function was associated with a worse HRQOL in kidney transplant patients (KTP) compared with patients experiencing chronic native kidney insufficiency.
Patients and methods: HRQOL was assessed in 128 stable KTP and 102 chronic kidney disease patients (CKDP) using the SF-36 health survey. The 2 groups were matched for age, sex, sociodemographic conditions, and renal function, the only difference being that KTP had experienced hemodialysis treatments before transplantation.
Results: Overall, KTP revealed a satisfactory HRQOL compared with CKDP. At variance with CKDP, KTP with estimated creatinine clearances >60 mL/min versus <60 mL/min showed higher scores among 7 of 8 SF-36 categories: physical function (PF), role physical (RP), bodily pain (BP), general health (GH), vitality (VT), role emotional (RE), and mental health (MH). Estimated creatinine clearance showed a significant positive correlation with PF (P = .0004), RP (P = .008), BP (P = .01), GH (P = .0001), VT (P = .001), RE (P = .03), and MH (P = .02), but exclusively in KTP. Multiple regression analysis confirmed in KTP that the scale scores of PF, RP, GH, VT, and RE were significantly dependent on creatinine clearance.
Conclusion: Our data demonstrated that among KTP deterioration of renal function was associated with a worse HRQOL.