Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jun 6, 2023; 11(16): 3780-3790
Published online Jun 6, 2023. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v11.i16.3780
Psychological review of hemodialysis patients and kidney transplant recipients during the COVID-19 pandemic
Ayse Gokcen Gundogmus, Ebru Gok Oguz, Sanem Guler-Cimen, Yasemin Kocyigit, Ahmet Emin Dogan, Mehmet Deniz Ayli
Ayse Gokcen Gundogmus, Yasemin Kocyigit, Department of Psychiatry, Etlik City Hospital, Ankara 65100, Cankaya, Turkey
Ebru Gok Oguz, Mehmet Deniz Ayli, Department of Nephrology, Etlik City Hospital, Ankara 65100, Cankaya, Turkey
Sanem Guler-Cimen, Department of General Surgery, Etlik City Hospital, Ankara 65100, Cankaya, Turkey
Ahmet Emin Dogan, Department of Urology, Etlik City Hospital, Ankara 65100, Cankaya, Turkey
Author contributions: Gundogmus AG and Guler-Cimen S are the guarantors and designed the study; All authors participated in the acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of data and drafted the initial manuscript; Gundogmus AG, Guler-Cimen S, and Ayli MD revised the article for important intellectual content.
Institutional review board statement: This study was conducted at Ankara Diskapi Yildirim Beyazit Research and Training Hospital, Transplantation and Nephrology Clinic, affiliated with the Saglik Bilimleri University of Turkey, Ankara, Turkey. The local ethics committee approved the study protocol, No. 10.08.2020-93/01. The study was carried out in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and the Declaration of Istanbul.
Informed consent statement: All study participants provided written informed consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Preliminary results of this clinical study were presented as an oral abstract at the European Society for Organ Transplantation meeting held in Milan in 2021.
Data sharing statement: The technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset are available from the corresponding author at sanem.cimen@sbu.edu.tr.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Sanem Guler-Cimen, Doctor, FEBS, MSc, Academic Editor, Adjunct Associate Professor, Chief Physician, Research Scientist, Department of General Surgery, Etlik City Hospital, Atatürk Caddesi, Ankara 65100, Cankaya, Turkey. sanem.cimen@sbu.edu.tr
Received: December 17, 2022
Peer-review started: December 17, 2022
First decision: January 12, 2023
Revised: February 11, 2023
Accepted: May 6, 2023
Article in press: May 6, 2023
Published online: June 6, 2023
Core Tip

Core Tip: Hemodialysis patients and kidney transplantation recipients with viral infections have higher mortality and morbidity rates compared to the general population. These patients are at a high risk of infectious complications due to immunosuppression, and this risk triggers psychosocial stress. Considering the possible negative effects of this psychosocial stress, an in-depth psychological analysis was performed using validated scales. Specific concerns and stressors related to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) were identified in both patient groups. Overall, the main concern was transmitting COVID-19 to family and friends, followed by financial hardship, loneliness, and stigmatization. The present findings showed that it is crucial to tailor supportive psychological interventions to these vulnerable patient groups.