Assessment of frailty and quality of life and their correlation in the haemodialysis population at Palmerston North Hospital, New Zealand.

AIM: End-stage kidney disease (ESKD) is increasingly becoming a healthcare concern in New Zealand and haemodialysis remains the most common modality of treatment. Frailty and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) are established predictors of prognosis and have already been shown to be poor in the dialyzing population. Existing data show correlation between these measures in the ESKD population, however there is little evidence for those on haemodialysis specifically. Our study aimed to assess for a correlation between frailty and HRQOL in the haemodialysis population at Palmerston North Hospital, and to assess for any differences in frailty and HRQOL scores between indigenous Maori and non-Maori subgroups. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted involving 93 in-centre haemodialysis patients from Palmerston North Hospital, New Zealand. Baseline demographic data was measured alongside frailty and HRQOL scores, which were measured using the Kidney Disease Quality of Life tool (KDQOL-36) and the Edmonton Frail Scale. RESULTS: A statistically significant negative correlation was observed between frailty and all aspects of HRQOL (p < .05), with the strongest correlation observed between frailty and the physical component (r = -.64, p = <.001). Independent samples t-test showed no statistically significant difference between scores for Maori and non-Maori in frailty (M = 7.4, SD = 3.3 vs. M = 6.8, SD = 3.2; t (91) = -0.92, p = .80), or HRQOL (p values > .05 in all components). CONCLUSION: A negative correlation was observed between frailty and HRQOL. This information can be beneficial in guiding discussions around treatment modality and for future patients and useful in enabling better predictions of prognosis. No statistically significant differences in frailty and HRQOL scores were observed between Maori and non-Maori groups, however the generalizability of this finding is limited due to the insufficient size of the study population.