Social Support Keeps Dialysis Patients Alive

[okarol]

Social Support Keeps Dialysis Patients Alive
   
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October 22nd, 2010, 08:20 GMT| By Smaranda Biliuti

Kidney disease patients on dialysis need social and family support in order to stick to the doctor's orders and take care of their health, a new study conducted by the University of Bordeaux and the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Bordeaux, concluded.


 It is rather hard to suffer from kidney disease and to have to go every day to dialysis, so patients often tend to be stressed because usually their treatment is taking them away from their families.

And as in many cases, in order to stop feeling guilty about being ill, the patients will simply stop asking for help and start to ignore their treatment, social support from family and friends is necessary to put them back on track.

What Aurélie Untas (Université de Bordeaux, in Bordeaux, France), Christian Combe, MD, PhD (Université de Bordeaux and the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Bordeaux), and colleagues analyzed in their study was what happens to dialysis patients if they do not get this support.

They analyzed the records of 32,332 dialysis patients enrolled in the Dialysis Outcomes and Practice Patterns Study (DOPPS), carried out between 1996 and 2008.

DOPPS is a prospective study of adult dialysis patients that are selected out of 930 dialysis facilities in 12 countries, worldwide.

The participants answered questions about their social activities, about the way they felt – isolated or a burden for everyone else, and also about the type of support they received from family and dialysis staff.

People who felt that their disease had interfered with their social life, had left them isolated or turned them into a burden for their families, were more likely to die during the study period.

Also, they were more likely to stop following their doctors' orders, maintaining dialysis and develop a poor physical quality of life.

What surprised the researchers was the fact that the support and the encouragements of the medical staff did not help patients at all.

They also noticed some differences depending on the country, like for example in Japan, patients who were not happy about their family support were more likely to die during the study.

Dr Combe said that “the presence of supportive people who can participate in care is an important source of strength for patients faced with hemodialysis.

“These study results raise the possibility that social-support interventions may improve patient care.

“Such interventions could strengthen other psychosocial factors, improve survival and enhance quality of life.”

The study appears in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN).

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Social-Support-Keeps-Dialysis-Patients-Alive-162358.shtml

[Rerun]

I guess the study didn't know about IHD and how we support each other.

         

[MooseMom]

I think they should pay us all to "study" IHD.  We could write a paper!

[YLGuy]

Keep us alive, make us better patients and make some great friends...priceless!

[brandywine]

I, for one, am extremely grateful to have this outlet. When your illness is internal with little to no visual symptoms, and when your symptoms fluctuate so greatly from day to day, hour to hour, people start to question your sincerity or the severity of your disease. When you mention your issues, because you discover a new symptom, or experience a dramatic intensity in a symptom, people start to think you are seeking attention or that you are exaggerating. It's a tough place to be. I know that when I get scared because I've started itching all over, and my hiccups have doubled, that I can share my concerns here, and even if someone can't comfort me, they can listen. I am soooooo grateful to have a place to share without feeling guilt for burdening my family and friends my own worries and fears, which are many.