Yuan-yuan Song
Sichuan University, China
Title: Understanding what influences symptom burden of hemodialysis patients: a cross-sectional observational study
Biography
Biography: Yuan-yuan Song
Abstract
Backgroud. Hemodialysis patients have been demonstrated to suffer from a heavy burden of symptoms. Factors influencing the symptom burden of hemodialysis patients are limited to demographic and clinical characteristics, little is known about other potential factors that can be predictable and intervened, such as self-management, sense of coherence and social support.
Methods. In a cross-sectional observational study conducted during February 2017 to October 2017, a total of 382 hemodialysis patients from 4 hospitals completed questionnaires that provided information on demographic and clinical characteristics, self-management, sense of coherence, social support and total symptom burden. The data were analyzed using SPSS, and regression analysis was used to evaluate for factors associated with symptom burden of hemodialysis patients.
Results. The total scores of symptom burden among participants ranged from 21 to 139, with a mean score of 74.12. Multiple regression model showed that 48.6% of the variance in symptom burden was explained by meaningfulness, emotion management, daily urine output, subjective support, gender, and manageability.
Conclusions. Self-management, sense of coherence, and social support are found to influence their symptom burden, suggesting that health care providers should perform symptom management from multi-faceted perspectives. Continued studies are needed to further explore other potential factors that can be predictable and intervened with regard to effective symptom management for hemodialysis patients.