Prevalence of uremic itching in patients undergoing hemodialysis

Uremic itching is a common problem with multifactorial etiology seen in hemodialysis patients. This study was carried out to determine the factors affecting and incidence of itching in patients undergoing hemodialysis treatment. The descriptive study was carried out in 130 patients who underwent hemodialysis treatment because of end-stage renal disease in Eastern Turkey between October 2014 and December 2014. A questionnaire prepared by the researcher based on the literature and the Visual Analog Scale were used for data collection. The data were collected by the researcher through face-to-face interviews in the hemodialysis unit. The evaluation of data obtained in the research has been performed using SPSS 16.0 software using percentages, chi-square analysis, and t-test. As a result of the study, 85.4% of the patients were found to have itching, the severity of itching was 4.86 ± 3.01 according to Visual Analog Scale, and itching of the patients was found to be affected by serum phosphorus and parathyroid hormone levels. Uremic itching continues to be seen as a problem in hemodialysis patients.