SP791
ABILITY TO PERFORM DAILY LIFE ACTIVITIES AND LEARNING NEEDS OF PATIENTS WITH KIDNEY TRANSPLANTATION Free

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS: Transplantation affects the patients’ psychological state and daily life activities. Quality of life and activities of daily living are very important variables in assessing individuals’ general health status. Although there are various studies regarding the quality of life of the patients who underwent kidney transplantation, there are limited studies on daily life activities and learning needs of patients with kidney transplantation. This research aims to investigate daily life activities and learning needs of the patients who underwent kidney transplantation.

METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, the data were collected through the following questionnaires: Nottingham Extended Activities of Daily Living Scale, The Patient Learning Needs Scale and also a new questionnaire that we developed following Roper, Logan and Tierney in 2000.

RESULTS: Mean age of 120 patients (63 females, 57 males) was 41.65±10.65 years and the mean transplantation time was 4.59±4.19 years. The mean general health score of the patients was 6.8±2.34. Surprisingly, while 66.7% of the patients reported that they had knowledge about the drugs they used, 58.3% of them could not answer the question that was regarding the most important side effects of the drugs they used. The findings showed that 20% of the patients had a respiratory problem and half of them were at a level that would challenge their daily life activities. The mean fatigue score of the patients was 4.53±2.88. 34.2% of the patients had sexual problems and 26.7% had sleep problems. There was an inverse relationship between fear of death and duration of illness. 41.7% of the patients had pain. Pain scores showed a positive correlation with fatigue scores and negative correlation with sleep scores. The average level of ADL was found to be lower in the patients with primary school graduates, those who did not work, and patients with other illnesses. The mean of the patients’ learning needs was 2.43±0.88 and their learning needs were as follows in order: quality of life, feelings about the situation, treatment and complications.

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that we should evaluate with a holistic approach given that our patients reported that their overall daily life activities and quality of life are good. However, when we examine each activity separately our findings showed that patients are lack of information regarding how to cope with stress, emotions and the effects of the kidney transplantation on their life. A planned and regular education should be provided in accordance with the medical needs of the patients. Thus, patients can develop their ability to cope with problems they experienced in their daily life activities.