Resilience Related to Quality of Life Perceived in Elderly Patients With Orthotopic Liver Transplant for More Than 10 Years

Introduction: Resilience is the ability to recover or adequately face adverse situations. It acts as a protective factor against negative events and/or complex stages of life, such as a chronic and complex disease requiring liver transplant. Age can also have an effect on a patient's ability to deal with liver transplant, resilience here being a predictor of well-being.

Objective: To analyze the level of resilience and its relationship with health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients over 60 years of age who underwent an orthotopic liver transplant (OLT) more than 10 years ago.

Materials and methods: We conducted a cross-sectional descriptive study at the Hospital Clínico Virgen Arrixaca.

Instrument: 1. To analyze resilience we used the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC 17) which measures 3 dimensions (tenacity/self-efficacy, personal control, and social competence). 2. To evaluate HRQoL, we used the Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36) questionnaire which covers 8 dimensions and produces 2 summary scores. Variables included age, sex, and post-OLT survival. Non-parametric statistical analysis was performed (P < .05).

Results: We analyzed 47 patients, 68% men (n = 32). The average age was 70.85 ± 0.98 years and average post-OLT survival was 15.79 ± 0.78 years. In terms of resilience, men had higher scores in tenacity/self-efficacy (90.82 ± 2.71 vs 84.79 ± 3.49; P = .029) and personal control (82.5 ± 3.79 vs 69.33 ± 5.23; P = .023). The longer the post-OLT period, the less personal control (R = -0.298; P = .042). Regarding HRQoL, the dimension of personal control is positively related: physical function (R = 0.388; P = .007); general health (R = 0.429; P = .003); vitality (R = 0.560; P = .000); social function (R = 0.402; P = .005); mental health (R = 0.311; P = .034); and physical summary (R = 0.381; P = .008). Like social competence, it is related to mental health (R = 0.360; P = .013) and mental summary (R = 0.384; P = .008).

Conclusion: These patients showed adequate levels of resilience. A greater resilience is related to greater general health, vitality, social functioning, and mental health.