Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2023 Mar;49(1):56-72.
doi: 10.1111/jorc.12403. Epub 2021 Oct 27.

Quality of life of caregivers of end-stage kidney disease patients: Caregivers or care recipients?

Stavroula Vovlianou  1   2 , Vasilios Koutlas  1   3 , Margarita Ikonomou  3 , Theodore Vassilikopoulos  4 , Fani Papoulidou  2 , Evangelia Dounousi  1   3
Affiliations
Review

Quality of life of caregivers of end-stage kidney disease patients: Caregivers or care recipients?

Stavroula Vovlianou et al. J Ren Care. 2023 Mar.

Abstract

Background: End-stage kidney disease (ESKD) patients require specific and continuous care, which affects caregivers' quality of life (QOL). It is necessary to define the basic problems and restrictions upon family caregivers of renal patients affecting their physical and psychological status.

Objectives: The main objectives of this narrative review were to examine the literature over the past 10 years, to describe factors associated with QOL of caregivers of patients with ESKD, and to identify the level of subjective burden reported by caregivers.

Methods: A literature search was carried out using the following electronic databases: PubMed, Medscape, Science Direct, Scopus, PsychINFO and other scientific sources. Keywords included 'quality of life', 'caregivers', 'end stage kidney or renal disease patients', 'burden' and a combination of these terms. Only studies from January 2010 to December 2020 were included in this study.

Results: The results found that there was significant burden and distress experienced by caregivers that affected their QOL. Patients' QOL is associated with caregivers' QOL. The hours of caring per day and the long-term replacement therapy are associated with great burden.

Conclusions: More awareness to caregivers' QOL is required to meet their needs, reduce anxiety and to improve patients' QOL. Caregiver support could empower and prepare them for initiation of replacement therapy. This can potentially enhance their diseased family members' QOL and could also restrict the use of health care system resources. Given how difficult it is to conceptualize QOL, a holistic approach to patients and caregivers require QOL assessment in each stage of the kidney disease.

Keywords: burden; caregivers; end-stage kidney/renal disease patient; quality of life.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

REFERENCES

    1. AARP Public Policy Institute & National Alliance for Caregiving (2015) Caregiving in the U.S. 2015.
    1. Abed, M.A., Khalifeh, A.H., Khalil, A.A., Darawad, M.W. & Moser, D.K. (2020) Functional health literacy and caregiving burden among family caregivers for patients with end-stage renal disease. Research in Nursing & Health, 43, 529-537.
    1. Al-Rawashdeh, S., Alshraifeen, A., Alhawamdih, S. & Ashour, A. (2020) Wellbeing and quality of life of family caregivers influence of sleep quality. British Journal of Community Nursing, 25, 70-75.
    1. Alnazly, E. (2016) Coping strategies and socio-demographic characteristics among Jordanian caregivers of patients receiving hemodialysis. Saudi Journal of Kidney Diseases and Transplantation, 27, 101-106.
    1. Alvarez-Ude, F., Valdés, C., Estébanez, C. & Rebollo, P. (2004) Health-related quality of life of family caregivers of dialysis patients. Journal of Nephrology, 17, 841-850.

LinkOut - more resources