Associations with wellbeing and medication adherence in young adults receiving kidney replacement therapy

Abstract

Background and objectives Young adults receiving kidney replacement therapy (KRT) have impaired quality of life and may exhibit low medication adherence. We tested the hypothesis that wellbeing and medication adherence are associated with psychosocial factors. Design, setting, participants, & measurements We conducted a cross-sectional online survey for young adults on KRT. Additional clinical information was obtained from the UK Renal Registry. We compared outcomes by treatment modality using age- and sex-adjusted regressionmodels, having applied surveyweights to account for response bias by sex, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. We used multivariable linear regression to examine psychosocial associations with scores on the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale and the eight-item Morisky Medication Adherence Scale. ResultsWerecruited 976 young adults and 64% responded to the survey; 417 (71%) with transplants and 173 (29%) on dialysis. Wellbeing was positively associated with extraversion, openness, independence, and social support, and negatively associated with neuroticism, negative body image, stigma, psychologic morbidity, and dialysis. Higher medication adherence was associated with living with parents, conscientiousness, physician access satisfaction, patient activation, age, andmale sex, and lower adherencewas associatedwith comorbidity, dialysis, education, ethnicity, and psychologic morbidity. Conclusions Wellbeing and medication adherence were both associated with psychologic morbidity in youngadults. Dialysis treatment is associated with poorer wellbeing and medication adherence.