Dialysis-linked complaints and burdens of illness on patient and spouse as predictors of survival in end-stage renal disease patients with home hemodialysis: a 10-year follow-up study

Participants were 40 persons from a group of 44 end-stage renal disease patients in southern Sweden who in 1985 received home hemodialysis under the auspices of a hospital renal unit, together with their spouses (n = 35). At a 10-year follow-up, 15 of the patients had died and 25 had survived. Univariate log rank tests of the influence of physical and demographic factors, the patient's dialysis-linked complaints and the burdens of the illness indicated the most important predictors of 10-year survival to be the patient's age, severity of the illness, the patient's dialysis-linked complaints (notably that of itching), and the burdens of the patient's disease on the spouse (particularly burdens of a sexual character). Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.