Quality of Life in Kidney Donors and Time of Recipient Graft Loss.

Abstract

Background: Kidney recipient graft loss or death has been reported to be a predictor of inferior quality of life (QOL) in their donors. Whether earlier graft loss is more closely linked with reduced QOL is not known. We hypothesized that early versus late graft loss would be associated with decreased QOL in donors. Methods: Donors were asked to rate their health as “excellent”, “very good”, “good”, “fair” or “poor” greater than one year post-donation. Of the donors who answered this survey and whose recipient's graft failed at time of analysis (n=1093), logistic regression was used to evaluate time to recipient graft loss (<3 years, 3-10 years, and >10 years) as a risk factor for inferior donor health defined as “good”, “fair”, or “poor”. The model was adjusted for BMI at donation and complications <3 months. Results: The mean time to follow-up was 17.4 ± 11.2 years and an average age of 58.2 ± 12.6 years. Donors with recipient graft loss >10 years from transplant were more likely to be related to their recipient than those whose graft failed between 3-10 years. There was no difference in race or gender (Table 1). Donors whose recipient experienced early graft loss, <3 years, were at no greater risk for reporting long-term inferior general health (OR 1.12, p=0.53). This remained true for those whose recipient's graft failed between 3-10 years (OR 1.20, p=0.25) (Table 2).Table 1: - Donor CharacteristicsTable 2: - Logistic Regression: Risk for Inferior General HealthConclusion: Early graft loss did not confer greater risk for inferior reported long-term general health in the live donor.