Authors: Elizabeth Mugi, Grace Githemo, Jonathan Wala.
Introduction: Though hemodialysis treatment modality remains the most sought option among patients with kidney disease, the modality is associated with multiple psychological stressors that confronts the hemodialysing patients and subject them to mental disturbances and poor quality of life.
Study aim: The study aimed at describing the psychological stressors faced by the hemodialysis patients in the new county dialysis centers in Kenya and to correlate the psychological stressors to the patients’ demographic characteristics.
Methodology: This was a descriptive correlation study among hemodialysis patients in four selected county dialysis centers in Kenya. Sample size was determined through a census method. Data was collected by means of a semi-structured questionnaire and analyzed using a Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25.0.Findings were presented using graphs and frequency tables while Chi-square was used to test for the association between study variables.
Results: Despite opening new county dialysis centers, majority of the respondents identified inadequate number of hemodialysis machines as the major psychological stressor (M=2.9, SD ± 0.8) uncertainty in life (M=2.74, SD ± 0.6) and lack of hemodialysis commodities (M=2.69, SD=0.7) as the leading psychological challenges faced by the patients who are dialyzing in the newly opened county dialysis centres in Kenya. There was a statistically significant association (p=0.016) between waiting time for hemodialysis sessions and gender and also a significant association (p=0.04) between marital status and dependency on others to bring them for dialysis session.
Conclusion: Despite the Government initiative to increase the availability and accessibility of the hemodialysis services to hemodialysis patients, inadequate hemodialysis machines, lack of hemodialysis commodities and difficulties in raising the cost of treatment still remains the major psychological stressors among hemodialysis patients. Therefore, opening of new dialysis centers should be accompanied with adequate resource allocation to guarantee positive patient outcomes.
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