Resilience and coping among living kidney donors: An overview of the literature.

BACKGROUND

Psychosocial outcomes following living kidney donation remain incompletely characterized. A subset of donors experiences psychological distress post-donation, and factors such as coping and resilience may allow psychosocial adaptation. We aimed to synthesize the existing literature examining resilience and coping among living kidney donors.

METHODS

We adopted an 'overview' approach informed by scoping review methodology. Seven databases were searched without limitations on the year of publication (except conference abstracts ≤5). Two independent reviewers screened titles and abstracts, full-text articles, extracted data, and synthesized the findings.

RESULTS

A thorough literature review yielded 210 titles and abstracts for screening; only eleven were eligible, mainly focusing on post-donation. Sample sizes ranged from 6 to 477 donors. Three studies examined resilience (two quantitative and one qualitative). Quantitative studies reported moderate-to-high resilience scores, with evidence of increased resilience following donation and associations with positive psychological outcomes, including post-traumatic growth. The qualitative study highlighted donors' efforts to rebuild, adapt, and move forward after donation, while emphasizing the importance of social support throughout the recovery process. Three studies quantitatively evaluated coping, and five studies explored coping using qualitative methods. Across studies, donors employed diverse coping strategies, including optimism, active problem-solving, social support, faith, information-seeking, and confidence in healthcare professionals.

CONCLUSIONS

This overview is limited by a small and heterogeneous body of studies on resilience and coping among living kidney donors. We highlight the need for high-quality investigative studies to better understand how resilience and adaptive coping influence psychosocial vulnerability, adaptation, and outcomes following living kidney donation.