Quality of life in children with end-stage renal disease undergoing renal replacement therapy: a cross-sectional survey

Objective To evaluate the quality of life (QOL) of children with uremia who underwent renal replacement therapy (RRT) and identify the influencing factors for QOL in order to improve the QOL of children with uremia. Methods Children with ESRD who underwent dialysis or kidney transplantation (KT) at Children's Hospital of Fudan University between November 2016 and October 2017 were enrolled. The children and/or their parents completed and returned the Pediatric QOL Inventory Measurement Models (PedsQLTM) 4.0 questionnaire. Moreover, the clinical data of these children were collected. According to the way of RRT, children were divided into dialysis group and KT group. The differences of scores between two groups were compared. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to analyze the factors affecting the QOL of children. Results A total of 79 children undergoing RRT were enrolled. Among them, 48 cases in the dialysis group and 31 cases in the KT group. For children in KT group, the total PedsQL scores of child-self and parent-proxy assessment were higher than those in dialysis group (P 0.05). The total scores for the QOL of child-self and parent-proxy assessment were different for dialysis children (P=0.05). Short stature (height<3th percentile) and elevated left ventricular mass index (LVMI) were the independent influencing factors for the QOL of child-self and parent-proxy assessment in children undergoing KT, respectively (B=12.162, t=2.681, P<0.05; B=-0.240, t=-4.276, P<0.01). Conclusions QOL was higher in children undergoing KT than those on dialysis. Short stature and elevated LVMI were the independent influencing factors for QOL in children undergoing KT. Key words: End-stage renal disease; Dialysis; Kidney transplantation; Quality of life; Influencing factor