DEPRESSION AND QUALITY OF LIFE AMONG CHILDREN ON CHRONIC DIALYSIS IN KHARTOUM STATE, SUDAN

Background: End stage renal disease and chronic dialysis are causing a high level of disability in different domains of patients’ lives. They lead to many psychiatric problems and negatively affecting patients’ Quality of life. Depression has been identified as the most common psychiatric illness in patient with end stage renal disease undergoing chronic dialysis.

Objectives: This study was undertaken to determine the incidence of depressive symptomatology among Sudanese children on chronic dialysis and to evaluate their quality of life.

Material and Methods: A total of seventy patients on chronic dialysis were recruited in this observational study with age ranging from 8-18 years. The study was conducted in four pediatrics Dialysis Centers in Khartoum State from April 2013 to June 2013.

Results: Almost half of those patients were having depressive symptomatology (47.1%) with a variable degree of severity. Depression symptoms were found to be common in patients on hemodialysis (44.3%) and were associated with school absentees, low adequacy of dialysis, female gender and adolescent age. One third of the patients on chronic dialysis had impaired quality of life, another third had poor quality of life and the rest had average quality of life.

Conclusion: Incidence of depressive symptomatology was significantly higher among children on chronic dialysis and there were many clinical and sociodemographic factors related to depression symptoms occurrence. The study also confirmed that, patients on chronic dialysis had significant limitation in their quality of life, with different ranges of severity.