Does Perceived Health Status Influence Quality of Life after Renal Transplantation

摘要

Organ transplantation aims to restore physical health status and overall QoL. This longitudinal was carried out to find out how most renal transplant recipients (RTRs) in Pakistan, perceive their health status and overall QoL after a successful kidney transplant. Renal transplant recipients (RTRs) were studied at three waves over 15 months. QoL was assessed using Ferrens & Powers QoL Index- Kidney Transplant Version that evaluated four major domains of life post-transplant. These included; health functioning scale (HF), psychological and spiritual scale (PS), social and economic scale (SE) and family subscale (FS). Perceived Health Status was measured using a self-developed questionnaire assessing frequency and severity common immunosuppressant side effects. The findings revealed that most RTRs were satisfied with their QoL and had positive perceptions of their health status. A significant positive correlation among QoL and PHS was found. A cross lagged correlation analysis to find if perceived health status influences perceptions of QoL or vice versa showed that it cannot be claimed whether, QoL always influences how recipients perceive their health status due to an inconsistent pattern at wave 1 and 2 where the data suggest the relationship is working in the opposite direction.