Introduction: Kidney transplant remains the best option for patients with end-stage renal disease, offering patients a longer and more satisfying life. Quality of life, as defined by the World Health Organization, is an individual's perception of their situation within their cultural context and value system in relation to their goals, expectations, personal standards, and vital interests. In Spain, more than 55,000 patients have received a kidney since initiation of the technique in 1965.
Methods: In an outpatient clinic in Granada, Spain, we interviewed kidney transplant recipients to analyze the sociocultural level and the subjective quality of life one year after transplant versus before transplant, measuring responses against completed level of education, work-life situation, number of hospital admissions, sexual impotence, and recipient and graft status.
Results: Among the 600 kidney transplant recipients interviewed, 96.4% of patients (n = 477) described their subjective health- related quality of life 1 year after transplant as “better than pretransplant,” 2.2% said it was equal, and 1.4% said it was worse. M
ost patients had completed at least high school (29.4%; n = 176) or primary school (27.9%; n = 167), although 4.3% of patients were illiterate. Only 24.4% of responders were working, mostly as homemakers (14.9%), farmers (10.7%), or builders (5.9%). One year after transplant, 6.8% presented with sexual impotence. Of 600 responders, 93.5% were alive with a functioning graft, 5.7% had returned to dialysis, and 0.4% had died during the first year after kidney transplant. Most patients (96.4%) reported having more energy, a less restricted diet, and fewer complications with a transplant compared with their pretransplant response. Indeed, former findings have also indicated lower rates of anxiety after kidney transplant.
Conclusion: Overall, despite the strict control of medication and medical supervision, kidney transplant recipients had a better quality of life compared with before transplant, similar to the general population.Fortunately, growing public awareness of living donor transplant has resulted in increasing numbers of potential donors, a welcome response to organ shortage. Kidney transplant recipients have been given a second chance because of the generosity of donors and their families; they should make their goal to stay positive, to stay healthy, and to live life to the fullest.