Quality of life in liver transplant recipients and the influence of sociodemographic factors

Abstract OBJECTIVE To verify the influence of sociodemographic factors on the quality of life of patients after liver transplant. METHOD Cross-sectional study with 150 patients who underwent liver transplant at a referral center. A sociodemographic instrument and the Liver Disease Quality of Life questionnaire were applied. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed, as well as multiple comparisons by the Tukey test and Games-Howell tests when p <0.05. RESULTS Old age had influence on domains of symptoms of liver disease (p = 0.049), sleep (p = 0.023) and sexual function (p = 0.03). Men showed better significant mean values than women for the loneliness dimension (p = 0.037). Patients with higher educational level had higher values for the domain of stigma of liver disease (p = 0.014). There was interference of income in the domains of quality of social interaction (p = 0.033) and stigma of the disease (p = 0.046). CONCLUSION In half of the quality of life domains, there was influence of some sociodemographic variable

Educational intervention for liver transplantation candidates

OBJECTIVE: The objective in this study was to analyze candidates' knowledge on the liver transplantation process before and after putting in practice an educational intervention. METHOD: A quasi-experimental, one-group pretest-posttest research design was adopted. The final sample included 15 subjects. Research data were collected between January and March 2010 in three phases, which were: pretest, implementation of the educational intervention (two meetings) and posttest. RESULTS: The results evidenced significant cognitive gains after the intervention, with improvements in the participants' performance . CONCLUSIONS: The research presents evidence that putting in practice a patient education strategy can enhance candidates' knowledge on the liver transplantation process and consequently contribute to a successful treatment