Assessment of Treatment Burden and Its Impact on Quality of Life in Dialysis-dependent and Pre-dialysis Chronic Kidney Disease Patients

Background: The management of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and its complications places a significant burden on patients, resulting in impairment of their health-related quality of life (HR-QOL). Little is known about treatment-related burden in pre-dialysis and hemodialysis (HD) CKD patients.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the magnitude of treatment-related burden and its impact on HR-QOL among patients with CKD.

Methods: This was a prospective, cross-sectional study to assess treatment-related burden and HR-QOL among patients with CKD in Qatar. Treatment-related burden and HR-QOL were assessed quantitatively using the Treatment Burden Questionnaire (TBQ) and the Kidney Disease Quality of Life (KDQOL™) questionnaire, respectively. The total TBQ score ranges from 0 to 150, with a higher score indicating higher treatment burden, while the range of total possible scores for the KDQOL™ are from 0 to 3600 with higher transformed score indicating better QOL. Pre-dialysis and hemodialysis (HD) CKD patients who had regular follow-up appointments at Fahad Bin Jassim Kidney Center in Qatar were enrolled. Data were analyzed descriptively and inferentially using SPSS version-24.

Results: Two hundred-eighty CKD patients (HD = 223 and pre-dialysis = 57) were included in the analyses (response rate 60.9%). Approximately 35% of the participants reported moderate to high treatment-related burden (TBQ global score 51-150). HD patients experienced significantly higher treatment burden compared to pre-dialysis patients with a median (IQR) score of 45 (36) versus 25 (33), respectively (p < 0.001). Medication burden and lifestyle changes burden were the highest perceived treatment-related burden. Overall, the perceived median (IQR) HR-QOL measured using the KDQOL-36™ among the participants was 2280.6 (1096.2) compared to the maximum global score of 3600. Similarly, the HD patients demonstrated significantly lower HR-QOL compared to the pre-dialysis patients [median (IQR) score of 2140 (1100) vs. 2930 (995), respectively; p < 0.001). There was a strong negative correlation between TBQ score and KDQOL-36™ score [rs (251) = -0.616, p < 0.001], signifying that HR-QOL decreases as treatment burden increases.

Conclusions: This study suggests that a considerable proportion of CKD patients suffered from treatment-related burden and deterioration in HR-QOL at a varying degree of seriousness. HD patients experienced significantly higher burden of treatment and lower HR-QOL compared to pre-dialysis patients and that HR-QOL declines as treatment burden increases. Therefore, treatment-related burden should be considered in CKD management and factors that increase it should be considered when designing healthcare interventions directed to CKD patients.