The comparison of general health status between hemodialysis and kidney transplant patients in university hospitals of Ahvaz, Iran

Introduction: Patients undergoing chronic hemodialysis and kidney transplant patients will be afflicted with various mental and physical problems, which may affect their general health. Previous studies have shown that, general health level in these patients is lower than general population. However, definitive studies comparing the general health between the two groups of patients undergoing hemodialysis and kidney transplant recipients have not been done, yet. Objectives: In this study, we aimed to compare the general health between the two groups of chronic hemodialysis patients and kidney transplant recipients. Methods and Patients: This investigation was a cross-sectional descriptive-analytic study that has been conducted on 31 hemodialysis and 33 kidney transplant patients in two university hospitals of Ahvaz, Iran. Data were collected through a general health questionnaire (GHQ-28) and they were analyzed with SPSS software. Results: The mean score of general health was 28.8 and 27.57 in hemodialysis and kidney transplant patients, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups, (p =0.7). Also, anxiety, serious depression, physical symptoms and social function were not significantly different between the two groups (p>0.5). Conclusion: In this study, no difference of general health level between hemodialysis and kidney transplantation was observed.