Illness Perception and Hopelessness in Hemodialysis

Mukadder Mollaoglu*, Ferhan Candan and Muratcan Mollaogl

Background: Illness perception is useful in understanding the impact of hopelessness on ESRD patients. This perception has been found to be an important determinant of behavior and has been associated with a number of important outcomes such as treatment adherence and functional recovery and quality of life. Aim: The aims of this study were to determine, the level of hopelessness and to evaluate whether illness perception is related to hopelessness among End-stage Renal Disease (ESRD) patients on hemodialysis (HD).

Methods: The study was conducted on patients with end stage renal disease who received treatment in the dialysis units and who volunteered to participate in the study. A total of 83 HD patients completed the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R) and Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) to measure the level of hopelessness.

Results: Result shows that there was significant relationship found between hopelessness and illness perception. Five components of illness perception which included consequences, personal control, treatment control, illness coherence, emotional response and causes were significantly correlated with hopelessness. HD patients believing that their illness was chronic and due to illness occurs most of stress-worry.

Conclusions: Interventions aimed at providing more knowledge about ESRD and dialysis, and provision of skills to coping with the illness and its consequences may reduce hopelessness in dialysis patients. The way the patients feels and believes regarding one self, the disease and also the treatment will usually affect his or her life. Additionally, the relationship between the five components of illness and  hopelessness provide support for pursuing further examination of the holistic outcomes in persons with ESRD patients undergoing haemodialysis.

Keywords:

Published on: Nov 8, 2016 Pages: 44-48

Full Text PDF Full Text HTML DOI: 10.17352/acn.000014
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