Employment and quality of life postkidney transplant: Are we justifying the choice of RRT - A cross sectional study

• Main Authors: Shikha Khandelwal, Vinay Malhotra, Dhananjay Agarwal, Pankaj Beniwal, Sanjeev Sharma, Rajesh Jorawat, Vartul Gupta, Shiv Chada
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2020-01-01
• Series: Indian Journal of Transplantation
• Subjects: employment; quality of life; renal transplantation
• Online Access: http://www.ijtonline.in/article.asp?issn=2212-0017;year=2020;volume=14;issue=3;spage=219;epage=223;aulast=Khandelwal
• ISSN: 2212-0017; 2212-0025

Introduction: For kidney, patients' socioeconomic status (SES) and employment significantly contribute to their general well-being, mental health (MH), and quality of life (QoL). Due to the scarcity of the literature, the present study was conducted to analyze the interrelationship between QoL, employment, and sociodemographic factors postkidney transplant and to identify the possible predictors of employment. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 90 kidney transplant patients during follow-up visits from July 2018 to June 2019 in the tertiary care government institute in North India. Employment before and after transplant was evaluated using a sociodemographic schedule. Short-form health survey 36 was used for the QoL. Results: Lower SES was not found in any of the subject's prekidney transplants, whereas it was revealed in 27.8% of the subject's postkidney transplant with a statistically significant difference. Unemployed status was also increased from 23.3% to 47.8% postkidney transplant. Employment posttransplant (EPT) is not associated with a good perception of psychophysical well-being: EPT/general health, r = −01.6; EPT/MH, r=-0.08, and EPT/ Mental component summary score (MCS), r = −0.34. It emerged that job return depends on the highest education, exercise, and insurance, while it is inversely proportional to the residence in a rural area and lower SES. Conclusion: Maintaining employment pretransplant and posttransplant should be actively supported and in case employment is lost, return to work should be integrated into the transplant planning. It may be useful to organize psychological support for these patients and to cure any psychological fragility in the posttransplant condition.