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ABSTRACT: Background
Dialysis patients experience a high symptom burden, which may adversely impact their quality of life. Whereas other specialties emphasize routine symptom assessment, symptom burden is not well-characterized in dialysis patients. We sought to examine the prevalence and severity of unpleasant symptoms in a prospective hemodialysis cohort.Methods
Among 122 hemodialysis patients from the prospective Malnutrition, Diet, and Racial Disparities in Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) study, CKD-associated symptoms were ascertained by the Dialysis Symptom Index, a validated survey assessing symptom burden/severity (with higher scores indicating greater symptom severity), over 6/2020-10/2020. We examined the presence of (1) individual symptoms and symptom severity scores, and (2) symptom clusters (defined as ≥ 2 related concurrent symptoms), as well as correlations with clinical characteristics.Results
Symptom severity scores were higher among non-Hispanic White and Hispanic patients, whereas scores were lower in Black and Asian/Pacific Islander patients. In the overall cohort, the most common individual symptoms included feeling tired/lack of energy (71.3%), dry skin (61.5%), trouble falling asleep (44.3%), muscle cramps (42.6%), and itching (42.6%), with similar patterns observed across racial/ethnic groups. The most prevalent symptom clusters included feeling tired/lack of energy + trouble falling asleep (37.7%); trouble falling asleep + trouble staying asleep (34.4%); and feeling tired/lack of energy + trouble staying asleep (32.0%). Lower hemoglobin, iron stores, and dialysis adequacy correlated with higher individual and overall symptom severity scores.Conclusion
We observed a high prevalence of unpleasant symptoms and symptom clusters in a diverse hemodialysis cohort. Further studies are needed to identify targeted therapies that ameliorate symptom burden in CKD.
SUBMITTER: You AS
PROVIDER: S-EPMC9217843 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
You Amy S AS Kalantar Sara S SS Norris Keith C KC Peralta Rene Amel RA Narasaki Yoko Y Fischman Ronald R Fischman Michael M Semerjian Avedik A Nakata Tracy T Azadbadi Zahra Z Nguyen Danh V DV Kalantar-Zadeh Kamyar K Rhee Connie M CM
Journal of nephrology 20220416 5
<h4>Background</h4>Dialysis patients experience a high symptom burden, which may adversely impact their quality of life. Whereas other specialties emphasize routine symptom assessment, symptom burden is not well-characterized in dialysis patients. We sought to examine the prevalence and severity of unpleasant symptoms in a prospective hemodialysis cohort.<h4>Methods</h4>Among 122 hemodialysis patients from the prospective Malnutrition, Diet, and Racial Disparities in Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) ...[more]