The Relationship Between Polypharmacy and Quality of Life in Kidney Transplant Patients

Abstract

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is becoming more widespread globally. Thanks to renal replacement therapy (RRT) methods, the life expectancy of CKD patients is gradually increasing. Today, the notion of quality of life has come to the forefront in evaluating treatment efficacy with increasing life expectancy. Among the RRT methods, kidney transplantation is the one that improves the quality of life the most. Polypharmacy is a concept that has been on the agenda recently and is known to have adverse effects on quality of life. Kidney transplant patients are frequently exposed to polypharmacy due to immunosuppressive drugs and comorbidities, particularly during the initial stages of transplantation. In our study, the KDQOL-SF questionnaire was administered to 128 kidney transplant recipients who visited the Nephrology outpatient clinic between October 2023 and November 2023. Those taking ≥6 medications were defined as the group exposed to polypharmacy. Polypharmacy was considered present in 74 of the patients involved in the study. The mean age of the patients was 51.8 ±11.5 years in the polypharmacy group and 42.4 ±12.5 years in the non-polypharmacy group. In renal transplant patients, the quality of life was notably reduced in the polypharmacy group. The presence of polypharmacy showed a statistically significant correlation with age, comorbidity, multimorbidity, marital status, and primary disease. The group with polypharmacy had notably lower scores in all sub-parameters of the KDQOL-SF. In conclusion, our study determined that the presence of polypharmacy had a negative impact on the quality of life of renal transplant patients. Polypharmacy was found to be associated with age, comorbidity and multimorbidity. © 2024 Ondokuz Mayis Universitesi. All rights reserved.