Relationship between Immunosuppressive Medications Adherence and Quality of Life and Some Patient Factors in Renal Transplant Patients in Iran

BACKGROUND & AIM: About organ transplant, immunosuppressive medications adherence is a critical issue, because non-adherence to these medications causes rejection, reduces quality of life and increases treatment cost and mortality rate. Among these, the quality of life is deemed very important to evaluate treatment result and also it can be useful for discovering non adherence. The aim this study was to assess the relationship between medication adherence and quality of life and some patient factors in renal transplant patients. METHODS: The study was a descriptive-correlational design and was done on renal transplant patients over 18 who had undergone surgery for over 3 months, and were inclined to participate. Sample size was 230 people and sampling was convenience. Quality of life questionnaire in renal transplant patients and Immunosuppressant Therapy Adherence Scale were filled by patients and the data was analyzed by SPSS15 software. RESULTS: It showed that the mean score of quality of life in renal transplant patients was 21.65±4.03 and 57.8% of them did not adhere to immunosuppressive medications. Results of correlation between scores of immunosuppressive medication adherence and Quality of life showed that there were significant correlation in 3 dimensions of 4: health performance (p≤0.0001 & rETA=0.23), social-economic (p=0.001 & rETA=0.15), psychological-spiritual (p=0.011 & rETA=0.15), also logistic test showed significant relationship between immunosuppressive medication adherence and number of transplantation (β=1.04, p= 0.048). CONCLUSION: According to the results, health care providers i.e. nurses must note to medication adherence as a health enhancement factor while treating and educating to these patients.