Background
Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is becoming an increasingly important outcome in kidney transplantation. To describe HRQOL in kidney transplant recipients (KTRs), this systematic review summarizes literature that compared HRQOL between KTRs to other relevant populations (i.e. patients receiving dialysis, patients on the waiting list for kidney transplantation, patients with chronic kidney disease [CKD] not receiving renal replacement therapy (RRT), the general population, and healthy controls) and themselves before kidney transplantation.
Methods
The literature search was conducted in PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and COCHRANE Library. Eligible studies published between January 2000 and October 2020 were included.
Results
44 studies comprising 6929 KTRs were included in this systematic review. Despite the study heterogeneity, KTRs reported a higher HRQOL after kidney transplantation compared with pre-transplantation and compared with patients receiving dialysis with or without being on the waiting list, especially in disease-specific domains (i.e. burden and effects of kidney disease). Additionally, KTRs had similar to marginally higher HRQOL compared with patients with CKD stage 3-5 not receiving RRT. When compared with healthy controls or the general population, KTRs reported similar HRQOL in the first one or two years after kidney transplantation, and lower physical HRQOL and lower to comparable mental HRQOL in studies with longer post-transplant time.
Conclusions
The available evidence suggests that HRQOL improves after kidney transplantation and can be restored to but not always maintained at pre-CKD HRQOL levels. Future studies investigating intervention targets to improve or maintain post-transplant HRQOL are needed.