Table 1.
Synthesis of the studies on QOL for family caregivers of patients on hemodialysis and its related factors
| No | Authors & Year | Title of Study | Samples & Setting | Method | Key Finding |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lindqvist et al., 2000 | Coping strategies and health-related quality of life among spouses of continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis, hemodialysis, and transplant patients | Swede: 55 spouses of patients. samples of the Swedish general population (n=454, and n=1200) | correlational and comparative | The majority of caregivers were female. The spouses of hemodialysis patients had significantly lower QOL compared with the general Sweden population and compared with the individuals of their own age. |
| Findings from the study were compared to two random | The spouses of patients with kidney transplantation had higher total score of QOL. Furthermore Physical functioning of transplant patient’s spouses was significantly higher than that of hemodialysis patients’. The husbands also received higher scores on subscales of mobility, compared to wives. They also significantly used less supportive, palliative and optimistic deals than women.31 | ||||
| 2 | Belasco et al., 2002 | Burden and QOL of Caregivers for Hemodialysis Patients | Brazil: 100 hemodialysis patients and their respective primary caregiver s | correlational and comparative | In health-related QOL for caregivers, there was more disorder in mental health, vitality, and physical aspects. There was also a significant relationship between lower scores of QOL for patients and caregivers and the perceived burden of care. There was only a significant relationship between caregivers’ mental health, patients’ vitality and caregivers’ pain, and family relationship (wife) with caregiver’ burden of care. Caregivers’ mental health and vitality had the greatest impact on the emotional aspect of QOL.18 |
| 3 | Alvarez-Ude et al., 2004 | Health-related QOL of family caregivers of dialysis patients | Spain: 221 patient/caregiver pairs (152 HD and 69 PD) | cross-sectional multi-centric study | QOL is slightly lower for family caregivers of patients on dialysis than the Spain general population of the same age and sex. The younger family caregivers who were looking after the elderly patients on the dialysis with lower health-related QOL experienced higher burden of care, lower health-related QOL and a higher risk of depression. The condition gets worse by reducing the perceived social support.30 |
| 4 | Belasco, et al., 2006 | QOL of Family Caregivers of Elderly Patients on Hemodialysis and Peritoneal Dialysis | Brazil: 201 caregivers of elderly patients (>65 years) on hemodialysis (HD) therapy (n=84), on peritoneal dialysis (PD) therapy (n=40), and a group of caregivers (n=77) of nonelderly HD patients | correlational and comparative | In most aspects of QOL, the sores for caregivers of elderly and non-elderly patients on the dialysis were lower than the average QOL for the Brazil general population. The most affected areas consisted of mental aspects (vitality, social aspects, emotional aspects and mental aspects); however, the scores were lower than the scores of their physical aspect.16 |
| 5 | Low et al., 2008 | The impact of end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) on close persons: a literature review | UK: 36 reviewed studies | literature review | Only in one study, people close to the patient reported the highest QOL and low burden of care; however, in other studies, it was shown that final stages of chronic renal failure and dialysis is associated with increased sense of responsibility and lower QOL, compared with a group of same age.25 |
| 6 | Wiedebusch et al. 2010 | Health-related QOL, psychosocial strains, and coping in parents of children with chronic renal failure | Germany: 195 parents (105 mothers, 90 fathers) | cross-sectional study | Mothers reported lower QOL and higher social-mental pressure than fathers. There was significantly associated with parental mental understanding of the limitations caused by their child’s disease in everyday life; however, it was related with the duration of disease. There was a difference in subscales in terms of emotional pressure, self-improvement and well-being (health). Parents of children undergoing dialysis had the lowest score on the total scale; however, the parents of children treated conservatively, gained the highest score of health-related QOL. All adaptation strategies, with the exception of seeking social support, had a significant relationship with parents’ QOL .also Adaptation strategies, improved marital relationships, seeking social support, self-acceptance and growth had approximately similar variance in predicting QOL. Parents using these strategies experienced higher QOL. Another predicting factor was parental understanding of the limitations caused by the disease in everyday life. Parents perceived less restriction caused by their children disease experienced higher QOL.32 |
| 7 | Anees et al., 2011 | Dialysis-Related Factors Affecting QOL in Patients on Hemodialysis | Pakistan: 125 Hemodialysis patients and 50 caregiver | cross-sectional study | QOL for hemodialysis patients was lower in all aspect but environmental aspect, compared to their caregivers. In other words, patients had lower qualities of lie in the areas of physical health, psychological health and social communication. Since caregivers are living with their patients in a similar socio-economic status and enjoy similar home, physical environment and transportation system, having similar environmental condition for both of them seems logical26 |
| 8 | Gill et al., 2011 | Assessment of the QOL of Caregiver’s of Patients Suffering from Chronic Kidney Disease | India: 68 primary caregivers Group A had 36 caregivers of patients on haemodialys and Group B had 32caregivers patients not on hemodialysis. | prospective study | The burden of care for caregivers of hemodialysis patients was significantly higher than that for caregivers of non-dialysis patients. For the caregivers of hemodialysis patients, the scores obtained in physical, psychological, social and environmental aspects were significantly lower, compared to caregivers non-dialysis patients.29 |
| 9 | اelik et al., 2012 | Are sleep and life quality of family caregivers affected as much as those of hemodialysis patients | Turkey: 142 pairs of HD patients and their caregivers | cross-sectional, multi-centric | A majority of caregivers (88%) had sleep disorders. Summary scores of physical and mental aspects were 62% and 70.4%, respectively and the caregivers were at a low level. The mean score of sleep quality questionnaire was significantly higher in groups of caregivers than in patients, indicating higher number for sleep disorders for caregivers. The scores obtained for seven dimensions of QOL including physical functioning, physical role limitations, emotional role limitations, physical pain, general health, social functioning, mental health, physical and mental performance summary was significantly higher in caregivers. However, the vitality score was non-significantly higher in patients.27 |
| 10 | Rioux et al., 2012 | Caregiver burden among nocturnal home hemodialysis patients | Canada: 61 pairs of NHD patients and their caregivers=122 | Cross-sectional surveys | The majority of caregivers were women and wife. Compared with caregivers, patients received significantly lower physical health scores. However, their mental health scores were similar. The score obtained by the caregivers was lower than the score expected for a healthy population. The caregivers’ physical health score was also lower than the expected score for a healthy population. And there was a relationship between the caregiver’s physical health and being affected by other diseases (lupus, hypertension, hypothyroidism and depression).28 |
| 11 | Shdaifat et al., 2012 | QOL of Caregivers and Patients Undergoing Hemodialysis at Ministry of Health, Jordan | Jordan: 138 patients and 49 caregivers | cross-sectional study | The QOL scores was lower for patients than caregivers. And the QOL score in both groups was lower than that of the general population. The caregivers’ highest score was associated with physical function and emotional role received the lowest score. In general, caregivers received higher scores compared with their patients and their physical and mental aspects summary scores were similar. However, caregivers’ physical status summary was higher than their mental status. The caregiver’s physical and mental status summary scores had a negative relationship with age. In this study, there was no relationship between QOL for caregivers and patients. There was also no relationship between women and men in terms of physical and emotional status. And there was also no significant difference and relationship between the caregiver’s education level, marital status and employment with quality of their life and their physical and mental status summary.2 |
| 12 | Lopes et al., 2014 | Health-related QOL of children and adolescents with CKD stages 4-5 and their caregivers | Brazil: Children/adolescents with CKD | cross-sectional, descriptive, comparative and analytical study | Total scores of QOL were similar for caregivers and control group, except for the public health score, since the caregivers received lower scores than the control group. |
| stages 4-5, as well as of their PC (n=64) in comparison healthy peers and their PC (n=129) | Moreover, the general health care scores for caregivers of hemodialysis patients under conservative treatment were lower. | ||||
| Median score of caregivers of hemodialysis patients in functional capacity, pain, vitality and mental health care was non-significantly lower the median score for caregivers of patients treated conservatively and those undergoing peritoneal dialysis and kidney transplant.24 |
HD: Hemodialysis; PD: Peritoneal dialysis; CKD: Chronic Kidney Diseas