Abstract
BackgroundChronic kidney disease (CKD) is a progressive and lifelong condition with multiple medical comorbidities. Patients with CKD experience frailty more frequently and have lower health-related quality of life than do those with other chronic diseases. The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of frailty and investigate the contribution of frailty to quality of life in pre-dialysis CKD patients in Korea.MethodsUsing a cross-sectional survey design, data were collected at an outpatient CKD clinic in a general hospital in Korea. The frailty criterion was modified from previous studies. The Short Form-36 Health Survey version 2 was used to measure physical and mental component summary scores. Data were analyzed using chi-square, t-tests, and hierarchical linear regression.ResultsOf the 168 CKD patients, 63 (37.5 %) were frail. Frail patients were significantly older and had lower physical and mental quality of life than those who were non-frail. In hierarchical regression evaluating the influence of frailty on physical and mental quality of life, the initial model was significantly improved when frailty was included. Frail patients had lower physical and mental quality of life.ConclusionsFrailty affected both physical and mental quality of life in pre-dialysis patients with CKD. More attention should be paid to the potential role of early detection and prevention of frailty to improve patients’ quality of life.
Highlights
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a progressive and lifelong condition with multiple medical comorbidities
The mean scores of physical component summary (PCS) [t (88.0) = 8.77, p < .001] and mental component summary (MCS) [t (84.18) = 5.44, p < .001] were significantly lower in frail patients than they were in non-frail patients, indicating that frail patients had lower physical and mental quality of life
Gender, educational level, marital status, CKD stage, average income, blood pressure, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine, and hemoglobin level were not associated with frailty
Summary
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a progressive and lifelong condition with multiple medical comorbidities. Patients with CKD experience frailty more frequently and have lower health-related quality of life than do those with other chronic diseases. The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of frailty and investigate the contribution of frailty to quality of life in pre-dialysis CKD patients in Korea. As a progressive and lifelong condition with multiple medical comorbidities, chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a global concern, and it affects approximately 5.9 % of the Korean population [1]. Frailty is associated with adverse outcomes in CKD patients, such as increased risk of death [3, 6] and hospitalization [10], which leads significant impairment in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) [11, 12].
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