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Meta-analysis on quality of life in living kidney donors
Lieke Wirken, PhD student at the Health,
Medical and Neuropsychology unit, in collaboration
with her supervisors dr. Henriët van
Middendorp and prof. dr Andrea Evers, has
published an article in the leading journal
American Journal of Transplantation.
Quality of
life
In the review and meta-analysis, she describes the
current state of affairs with respect to the
course and predictors of health-related quality of
life after kidney donation in live donors. Her
analysis shows that – although shortly after
these donors have lower quality of life,
especially in physical functioning
– long-term quality of life scores were
comparable to those found in the general
population. Lieke Wirken also looked at the
limited number of studies that examined risk
factors for lower quality of life. Low
psychological functioning before donation appeared
to be the most consistent predictor for
that.
Recommendations
Wirken and her
colleagues conclude that doctors can inform
potential kidney donors that donors, on average,
have high long-term health-related quality of
life. Further, they advise that future studies aim
at finding other potentially important predictors
of health-related quality of life after donation.
In that way, it will be possible to optimize
screening of and interventions for donors and
to improve the care of live kidney
donors.