The Importance of Long-Term Follow-Up Visits for Kidney Donors

Abstract

Background: This paper examined the importance and influence of post-transplantation follow-up visits on the quality-of-life (QoL) of living kidney donors in Malaysia. Methods: Based on data collected from 80 living kidney donors, the relationship between QoL and the frequency of follow-up visits was examined. QoL was measured using standard SF-8 questions to capture its different dimensions. Results: Donors in the 1991-1998 donation cohort have low QoL, especially in the domains of physical and vitality, compared with the other two cohorts (1999-2005 and 2006-2012). The mean scores showed that donors who never went for any follow-up activities visits experience low QoL in most of the categories, particularly those related to physical activities, implying the importance of follow-up activities visits in influencing the donors' QoL. Lower QoL was recorded for respondents that never received post-transplant treatment. Conclusion: Although this study found no serious post-transplant QoL issues in Malaysia, it is still important to set up a donor registry and provide free and mandatory follow-up visits for all donors in order to adequately monitor their health.