The Relationship between “Self-Care Ability” and Psychological Changes among Hemodialysis Patients

AIM: The study investigates and analyzes the relationship among the concepts of demoralization, posttraumatic growth, and self-care ability in patients undergoing hemodialysis. METHODS: The cross-sectional descriptive correlational study was conducted in 2017 on 150 hemodialysis patients selected through census in Buali Hospital, Ardabil, Iran. Demoralization scale, the posttraumatic growth inventory, and self-care questionnaire were used for cross-sectional data collection. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficient. RESULTS: The mean and standard deviation of demoralization, posttraumatic growth, and self-care were 36.25 ± 18.84, 63.17 ± 17.71, and 33.89 ± 6.40, respectively. Self-care ability was positively associated with posttraumatic growth (r = 0.287) and negatively related to demoralization (r = −0.168). Self-care ability was also found to be desirable in 84.7% of the patients. CONCLUSIONS: Hemodialysis patients can experience both positive and negative psychological changes. Self-care ability is associated with reductions in negative psychological problems and increases in positive psychological changes. Health-care providers can, therefore, help hemodialysis patients to improve their psychological conditions by making plans for improving self-care abilities.