Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate dialysis adequacy, symptom experience, mood states and hope to identify the factors affecting hope in hemodialysis patients.
Methods: A total of 129 hemodialysis patients were recruited from a university hospital and two general hospitals in Busan. Data were collected by questionnaires using Dialysis Symptoms Index (DSI), Korean version Profile of Mood States Brief (K-POMS-B), and Miler Hope Scale (MHS). Additionally, dialysis adequacy was collected from medical records of patients. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, X2-test, Pearson''s Correlation and hierarchical multiple regression.
Results: The average scores of dialysis adequate, symptoms experience severity, mood disturbance, hope were 1.38±0.33, 23.80±17.11, 19.63±16.25, 102.05±14.58, respectively. In hierarchical regression, the significant factors affecting hope in the first step were age (β=-.26, p=.013) and economy state (β=.24, p=.006), which explained about 14.1% of the variance. Dialysis adequate (β=.18, p=.014) in the second step and mood disturbance (β=-.59, p<.001) in the third step were statistically significant factors and each explained 2.9% and 30% of the variance. The final model was statistically significant (F=15.16, p<.001) and explained about 47% of the total variance.
Conclusions: This study showed that mood disturbance should be considered the most valuable factor affecting hope in hemodialysis patients. Therefore, hope was higher when mood disturbance was low and dialysis adequacy was high. They suggest that significant efforts in reducing the mood disturbance such as tension, depression and anger which most patients complained should be taken into accounts to improve their hope for recovery.