Psychosocial Health and Quality of Life Among Living Kidney Donors: A Study From a Tertiary Care Center in South India.

RATIONALE &

OBJECTIVES

Although kidney donation has been deemed a safe procedure with low mortality and morbidity, the impact of organ donation on the long-term quality of life is not known in our population. We aimed to compare the quality of life between age and sex-matched living kidney donors and healthy nondonors and to estimate the prevalence of anxiety, depression, and regret among kidney donors.

STUDY

DESIGN

Questionnaire-based observational study.

SETTING &

PARTICIPANTS

Adult living kidney donors aged ≥18 years who donated between 2020 and 2024 at a tertiary care center in South India.

PREDICTORS: We analyzed the effects of baseline clinical, sociodemographic factors, postoperative complications, long-term comorbid conditions, and recipient and donor renal function on the psychosocial health of living kidney donors.

OUTCOMES: Quality of life and the prevalence of anxiety, and depression were determined using the SF-36 (36-Item Short Form Health Survey), General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), respectively.

RESULTS

Of the 69 included living kidney donors, 57 (82.6%) were female. Post-donation anxiety and depression were seen in 7 (10.1%) donors and 3 (4.3%) donors, respectively. The SF-36 Mental Component Summary and Physical Component Summary scores of donors were not statistically different from those of age- and sex-matched healthy donors (46.84 ± 8.72 vs 48.48 ± 7.52; P = 0.24 and 46.42 ± 9.25 vs 47.24 ± 12.02; P = 0.66, respectively). Further age stratification revealed that donors older than 50 years performed poorly in various domains of the SF-36 compared with younger donors. The donors who developed medical comorbid conditions, surgical complications, or deconditioning limiting physical activity post-donation were unlikely to recommend others to donate.

LIMITATIONS: The study was conducted at a single center with a relatively small sample size.

CONCLUSIONS

The quality of life of kidney donors was comparable to that of healthy nondonors except for a subgroup of donors older than 50 years who had worse quality of life parameters in certain domains compared with younger donors. Overall, living kidney donors reported a positive donation experience, with low rates of regret.