Illness Perception of Turkish Patients Undergoing Hemodialysis and Peritoneal Dialysis: Similarities and Differences

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the illness perception of Hemodialysis (HD) and Peritoneal Dialysis (PD) patients having end-stage renal failure. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out in Organ Transplantation and Dialysis Hospital. Data were collected between January-June 2016. The study was conducted with a total of 93 individuals including 45 patients undergoing PD and 48 patients undergoing HD between the indicated dates. An information form and Illness Perception Questionnaire-Revised (IPQ-R) were used as data collection instruments. Independent samples t test, one way anova and pearson correlation analysis were used to assess data. Results: Among the patients, mean duration of disease was 81.4 +/- 77.7 (HD: 82.7 +/- 93.5, PD: 80.1+60.1) months, mean duration of dialysis was 57.7 +/- 58.3 (HD: 58.6 +/- 67.0, PD: 56.8 +/- 49.4) months and mean number of comorbid diseases was 1.4 +/- 0.6 (min: 1.0, max: 4.0). 93.5% of the patients had familial support (HD: 91.1%, PD: 95.8) and 69.9% (HD: 37.8%, PD: 100.0%) had taken a training about the disease and its treatment from healthcare professionals. It was also found that mean scores of PD patients from IPQ-R subscales including personal control, illness coherence and timeline acute/chronic were found to be significantly higher than HD patients (p<0.05). Conclusion: As a result of this study, it was determined that HD patients perceived their illnesses as more challenging compared to PD patients. Therefore, especially HD patients may be given disease-related trainings with the onset of their treatment process and a psychological support may be recommended to accept their chronic diseases.