Quality of Life Assessment in Chronic Kidney Disease Systems
Summary
Quality of life assessment in chronic kidney disease (CKD) has emerged as a vital complement to traditional clinical measures, capturing the patient experience across physical, mental and social domains. As CKD progresses from early stages through dialysis or transplantation, symptom burden—including fatigue, pain, sleep disturbance and psychological distress—can erode everyday functioning and well-being. Assessment frameworks deploy both generic and kidney-specific instruments to quantify health-related quality of life, enabling clinicians to tailor interventions, monitor treatment impact and guide shared decision-making. Increasingly, routine collection of patient-reported outcome measures informs multidisciplinary care pathways and quality improvement strategies. This holistic approach acknowledges that optimising laboratory parameters and preserving residual renal function must be complemented by strategies to sustain patients’ independence, participation in work and social roles, and overall life satisfaction.
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Quality of Life Assessment in Chronic Kidney Disease Systems publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in quality of life assessment in chronic kidney disease systems across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Patient-reported outcome measure (PROM): A tool by which patients self-report on symptoms, functional status or quality of life, without interpretation by clinicians or others.
Health-related quality of life (HRQoL): A multidimensional construct encompassing physical, emotional and social aspects of well-being as affected by disease or treatment.
36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36): A widely used generic questionnaire covering eight domains of health, summarised into physical and mental component scores.
Kidney Disease Quality of Life Instrument (KDQOL): A disease-specific module often paired with the SF-36 to assess symptoms and concerns unique to CKD patients.
Glomerular filtration rate (GFR): A measure of renal filtration efficiency, estimated from serum creatinine, age and other factors to stage kidney disease.
References
- Energy conservation education intervention for people with end-stage kidney disease receiving haemodialysis (EVEREST): A two-arm parallel group study. International Journal of Nursing Studies (2025).
- Health-Related Quality of Life during 26-Week Intervention with the New Nordic Renal Diet. Nutrients (2024).
- Measurement properties of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) used in adult patients with chronic kidney disease: A systematic review. PLOS ONE (2017).
- Symptom burden and health-related quality of life in chronic kidney disease: A global systematic review and meta-analysis. PLOS Medicine (2022).
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