The Relationship Between Social Supports And Mental States Of Individuals With Kidney Transplants

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the relationship between the social supports and mental states of individuals with kidney transplants. All the patients in Akdeniz University Prof. Dr. Tuncer Karpuzoğlu Organ Transplant Education, Research and Application Centre polyclinic comprised the population of the research, and the patients meeting the research criteria according to simple random sample choice comprised the sample of the research. The research data was collected between 30th November 2014 and 31st July 2015. Three different forms were used as data collection tools including socio-demographic information as well as the Multi-Dimensional Perceived Social Support Scale and Short Symptom Inventory. Besides descriptive statistical methods, Kruskal-Wallis Test and Whitney-U Test were used in the comparison of qualitative data in the data evaluation. Short symptom inventory subdimension point averages were calculated as 6.81±8.29 in anxiety, 8.31±9.14 in depression and 30.80±32.25 in total. The family support point average - the sub-dimension of Multi-Dimensional Perceived Social Support Scale - was 25.32±5.68 and the total point average was determined as 58.76±16.79. A weak relationship was found between the subdimensions of Short Symptom Inventory with the subdimensions of Multi-Dimensional Perceived Social Support Scale and the total point negatively (p0.01). The data analysis established that as social support level of the individuals with kidney transplant perceive increases, the symptoms of anxiety, depression, negative self, somatization and hostility decreases. These findings highlight that individuals with kidney transplants have good levels of mental states, that the social support they perceive is above the average and that the individuals with transplants get the most social support from their families. These results suggest that education programs on social support need to be instituted and that similar studies need to be carried out with individuals with kidney transplants in different institutions in Turkey.