Quality of Life for Hemodialysis Patients in Kirkuk Governorate / Iraq

Abstract

Objectives: to assess Quality of Life (QoL) for dialysis patients and to predict the correlations among the domains of quality of life.

Methods: A descriptive study was conducted in Kirkuk General Hospital in Kirkuk city. The study was initiated in 15^th September 2011 to the 20^th August 2012. Purposive sample consists of (94) patients with end-stage renal disease treated by Haemodialysis were selected. In order to collect the study data, such questionnaire was constructed based on World Health Organization (WHO) instrument and literature reviews. It is composed of two parts, part one included (9) items that focused on the client demographic characteristics. Part two is composed of (5) items that covered physical, social, psychological, level of independence and spiritual domains of quality of life. The overall questions included (109) items, 3-likert scale option was used in the rating scale as: (2) for Always, (1) for Sometimes and (0) for Never. Content validity was determined by presenting the questionnaire to a panel of (16) experts. Reliability of the instrument was determined through Internal consistency of the questionnaire that was assessed by calculating Cronbach's Coefficient (r= 0.81) through test-retest on (10) patients for fourteen days in-between.

Results: The findings indicated that the sub-domain of sleep and rest as a part of the physical domain, also the psychological domain of the quality of life for these patients had greatly affected.

Conclusion: The study concluded that there were significant statistical interrelations between physical and psychological domains in addition to spiritual with social domain.

Recommendation: The study recommends to increase the number of specialized health related agencies and dialysis units to enhance the quality of life for hemodialysis patients.