PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING IN HAEMODIALYSIS PATIENTS: COMPARING PERSPECTIVES FROM PATIENTS, CAREGIVERS AND HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS-THE GOODRENAL PROJECT

Abstract BACKGROUND AND AIMS The start of dialysis therapy can contribute to the development of depression, stress and anxiety, which, in turn, has an impact on the patient´s quality of life, the disease process and the associated social and health care costs. This underlines the importance of studies that analyse the psychological profiles of patients on maintenance dialysis to establish relationships between risk factors, prevention steps and intervention strategies aimed at improving their quality of life. Therefore, we explored the perceptions regarding the patient's psychological wellbeing, seen from three different perspectives: patients’ own, their caregivers’ and that of their healthcare professionals (HCPs). METHOD This study is part of the GoodRENAL Project, which is funded by the European Community Erasmus + and involves four countries: Belgium, Greece, Spain and Sweden. Exploratory questionnaires regarding patients’ psychological wellbeing were developed by the team, and responses were obtained from three groups of stakeholders: 38 patients, who were randomly allocated to this study from the first dialysis shift of the week (mean age 58 ± 0.51 years; 50% women); 34 caregivers (mean age 54 ± 13 years; 80% women); and 39 healthcare professionals (HCPs mean age 42 ± 10 years; 79% women). The exploratory questionnaires comprised different parts, exploring the psychological state of patients through closed questions, open questions and questions about barriers, needs and facilitators regarding psychological wellbeing. The patients’ and caregivers’ questionnaires had 10 items scored from 1 (‘never’) to 5 (‘almost all the time’). The HCPs questionnaire included 10 items rated as 1 (‘totally disagree’) to 5 (‘totally agree’). RESULTS To analyse the descriptive data, the response frequency was grouped into items based on the level of agreement or the frequency of the occurrence (almost all the time and all the time). The table below shows answers received from patients, caregivers and HCPs. CONCLUSION Patients consistently reported a much more positive subjective perception of their psychological state, compared with that assumed by HCPs, while the perceived perception of patients’ states reported by their caregivers was in general closer to that reported by the patients. The extent by which patients’ positive responses are related to adaptations such as social desirability, distorted subjective perception, minimization or normalization of symptomatology should be explored in further studies.