Fatigue and associated factors in maintenance hemodialysis patients

In hemodialysis patients, fatigue, especially chronic fatigue, impairs quality of life (QOL) and is a risk factor for various diseases, especially cardiovascular diseases. We performed a co-operative study of fatigue, involving 287 maintenance hemodialysis patients that were being treated at the dialysis centers of two hospitals. This study showed that fatigue in hemodialysis patients was more severe on dialysis days than on non-dialysis days, and it was also more severe when the delta% change in interdialytic body weight gain was>8%. Fatigue was correlated with the dialysis period, but not age. Fatigue was inversely correlated with the serum albumin level, which is a predictor of nutritional status, on both dialysis and non-dialysis days. In addition, patients who walked at least 30 minutes every day as physical exercise felt less fatigue. It was demonstrated that improving and maintaining nutritional status as well as promoting daily activity are important for maintaining and improving QOL among hemodialysis patients.