Association of stress and anxiety with self-care in hemodialysis patients

Abstract

Introduction: It is generally accepted that stress and anxiety are of the most common psychiatric complications of hemodialysis. Self-care is considered as one of the health promotion behaviors. Self-care reduction increases the risk of mortality and morbidity too. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine the correlation between stress and anxiety with self-care in hemodialysis patients. Patients and Methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted on 80 hemodialysis patients, selected by convenience sampling method. The perceived stress was measured by a perceived stress scale (PSS) questionnaire, since the anxiety assessed by the Spielberger StateTrait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), accordingly, self-care assessed by hemodialysis patients’ selfcare measurement scale. Results: In this study, no patient had poor self-care. The self-care was moderate in 75% of patients and good in 25% of patients. The anxiety was mild in 46.2% of patients, moderate in 50% and severe in 3.8%. The perceived stress was low in 62.5% of patients and high in 37.5% of patients. There was a significant negative correlation between the perceived stress score and the self-care score (P=0.001, r=-0.376), however, no correlation was observed between anxiety and self-care score (P=0.089, r=-0.193). Conclusion: The results showed that stress of hemodialysis patients had a negative effect on their self-care, while anxiety had no significant effect on self-care. Therefore, it is suggested to identify and resolve the factors affecting stress of these patients, and to conduct further research regarding this subject.