Social support and treatment adherence in patients with end-stage renal disease: A systematic review

Successful dialysis in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) largely depends on the patients' ability to adhere to several clinical requirements and life-style changes. Social support has been consistently linked to better health outcomes in a number of chronic diseases. The current study presents a systematic review of the literature on the relationship between social support and treatment adherence in ESRD. The search was performed on Web of Science, PsycInfo, ScienceDirect, and Scopus from January 19 to May 15, 2019. Two hundred and twenty-four records were identified. After quality assessment, 17 studies were included for qualitative synthesis. This review comprised a total of 2362 patients. Most patients were on hemodialysis (97.5%) for an average of 58.2 months. Results suggested an overall pattern of mixed findings regarding the association between social support and treatment adherence. Adherence to fluid restrictions was the type of adherence with more significant associations with social support (63%). Mixed results were found for adherence to dialysis sessions (50%) and to medication (50%). Associations between adherence to diet restrictions and social support were found in 44% of the included studies. No significant associations were found between social support and adherence to follow-up consults. All of the included studies combining several types of adherence into an overall score found significant associations with social support. Findings suggested that it might be particularly beneficial to focus future research and clinical efforts toward social support from family, significant others, and health professionals, to improve patient's with ESRD treatment adherence.