Quality of life among living related kidney donors: a cross-sectional study based on generic and donor specific assessments

Abstract

Background:Several studies have reported favorable results in assessing quality of life in living kidney donors using generic scales. There are limited studies using donor-specific tools to assess quality of life in living kidney donors.

Objective:Based on both the generic and specific quality of life scale for living organ donors, the present study aimed to comprehensively report the quality of life of living related kidney donors in mainland China, and to identify factors affecting their quality of life.

Study design:A Cross-Sectional Study.

Methods:A cross-sectional study was conducted from June to December 2019. A sample of 121 living related kidney donors was recruited from a kidney transplantation center in mainland China. Quality of life was assessed using the abbreviated World Health Organization Quality of Life questionnaire and the quality of life scale for living organ donors. Binary logistic regression was adopted to determine the influencing factors of quality of life.

Results:For the generic assessment, kidney donors scored significantly lower than the Chinese norm in the domain of physical functioning (P<0.05), but significantly higher in the domains of social support and environment. The donor specific quality of life assessment revealed the following issues as prominent among our donors: finance, work, medical expenses, fatigue, concerns about health and income, and inadequate health support. Male donors were more likely to have a good physical function-related quality of life (QoL) (adjusted Odds Ratio[OR] = 3.21, 95%CI:1.34-7.69, P = 0.009), while donors with lower education level were more likely to have impaired physical functioning (adjusted OR = 0.10, 95%CI:0.12-0.82, P = 0.032). The good health condition of the donor’s recipient correlated positively with psychological health (adjusted OR = 3.68, 95% CI:1.03-13.07, P = 0.044). Uncomplicated proteinuria may be a protective factor for psychological (adjusted OR = 4.30 2, 95%CI:1.05-17.59, P = 0.043) and social (adjusted OR = 4.38 2, 95%CI: 1.15-16.69, P = 0.030) Quality of life in kidney donors compared to donors presenting with proteinuria.

Conclusions:The impact of kidney donation on the quality of life of living donors is multifaceted. Medical staff should inform donors about these potential issues they may encounter before donation. This includes not only injuries and complications that may result from the surgery but also the impact of kidney donation on their professional life and capacity to work, as well as possible financial issues, such as increased medical expenses and reimbursement difficulties.

Keywords

Renal transplantation / Living donors / Quality of life / Influencing factors

Ethics approval

This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki as revised in 2013 and the measures for Ethical Review of Life Sciences and Medical Research Involving Human Beings. The study was approved by the Peking University Institutional Review Board (Approval No. IRB00001052-19005) and all collaborating hospitals acknowledged the ethical approval from Peking University. All participants signed informed consent forms after receiving a detailed explanation of the study. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants. This manuscript has the consent of the participant for the use of his/her data and for the publication of the data that appear in the article.

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71974008).

CRediT authorship contribution statement:

Yuexian Shi: Conceptualization, Writing - original draft, Writing - review and editing, Formal analysis, Methodology, Data curation; Zhaoling NIE: Investigation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Data curation; Jianyong PAN: Investigation, Data curation; Yingxin FU: Conceptualization, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Writing - review and editing. All the authors have read and approved the final version of this manuscript.

Data availability

All relevant data are within the manuscript and its supplementary file.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Author Yuexian Shi is an editorial board member of Healthcare and Rehabilitation but has not been involved in the review or decision-making process for this manuscript.

Acknowledgments

None.

Appendix A. Supplementary material

Supplementary data associated with this article can be found in the online version at doi:10.1016/j.hcr.2025.100022.

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