Long-term psychosocial outcome after renal transplantation during childhood

The aim of this study was to describe long-term psychosocial outcome after renal transplantation during childhood. Sixty-eight patients, having reached adulthood (>20 yr of age), were selected for the study. An invitation letter was sent to the patients asking them to participate in an interview performed by telephone and 42 (24 females) agreed. The age at the time of the interview was median 25.7 yr. The age at the transplantation was 1.4-20.5 yr. A total of 9.5% considered themselves as ill (three of four on dialysis), 24% as both ill and well and 67% as well. The school performance did not differ to a great extent from the general population. Fourteen percent were unemployed compared with 5.3% of the general population. Fourteen percent, all under 25 yr, lived with their parents, 52% had independent lodging and 33% were married or lived with a partner. Twenty-five patients stated that they had felt anxiety or depressed at some time. However, when asking them to score their quality of life on a scale from 1 to 10, they scored median 8.0. Thus, the long-term psycho-social outcome after kidney transplantation during childhood seems to be quite good. Most of the interviewed seemed to have a good life according to themselves.