Personality Traits and Self-Care in Adults Awaiting Renal Transplant

This article reports the pretransplant findings of the first phase of a three-phase, longitudinal study examining relationships among personality traits and self-care abilities and behaviors of Ontario adults pre-and post-renal transplant. A consortium of Ontario nurse researchers representing three of Ontario’s five renal transplant centers conducted this research. All adults on the cadaver transplant lists of 15 Ontario dialysis centers were invited to participate. One hundred ninety-eight adults awaiting renal transplant were enrolled in the study, representing a 70% response rate. A cross-sectional, correlational design was used for the pretransplant phase. Self-report measures with known psychometric properties were used; validity and reliability of the measures were supported by the sample. Data were analyzed using descriptive approaches, correlational analyses, multiple regression, and path analysis. Relationships were supported among selected personality traits, health state and self-care abilities and behaviors. Further research to examine personality traits and health state in relation to adult self-care is warranted.