WEDNESDAY, Oct. 17, 2018 (HealthDay News) — For young adults receiving kidney replacement therapy (KRT), well-being and medication adherence are associated with psychological morbidity, according to a study published online Oct. 16 in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
Alexander J. Hamilton, M.D., from the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, and colleagues conducted an online survey for young adults receiving KRT. Outcomes were compared by treatment modality using age- and sex-adjusted regression models. They examined the correlation between psychosocial associations with scores on the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale and the eight-item Morisky Medication Adherence Scale.
A total of 976 young adults were recruited, and 64 percent of them responded to the survey, including 417 with transplants and 173 on dialysis. The researchers observed a positive association for well-being with extraversion, openness, independence, and social support; negative associations were identified with neuroticism, negative body image, stigma, psychological morbidity, and dialysis. There were correlations for higher medication adherence with living with parents, conscientiousness, physician access satisfaction, patient activation, age, and male sex; lower adherence was seen to be associated with comorbidity, dialysis, education, ethnicity, and psychological morbidity.
“Our results suggest a possible role for routine measurement of psychological health in young people, to avoid missing opportunities to identify and improve mental health,” the authors write. “This could help identify those at higher risk of poor outcomes for close monitoring, greater psychosocial support, or targeted interventions.”
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