Emotional Pre-Occupation And Variations in Stress Scores During Chronic Hemodialysis Management

Hemodialysis (HD) patients experience significant psychological stress related to HD. Different types of coping strategies are utilized by these patients to cope with this stress.

Variations in different types of coping strategies with the variations in HD-related stress scores and disparities by sex were assessed. HD patients aged 18 years and above who were seeking regular treatment in a specific HD-unit of a hospital in the upper Midwest, were surveyed between March 2020 and July 2020.

Descriptive statistics, correlational analyses, and regression analyses were performed. Females could be expected to have emotional coping scores 8 units greater than males, as B = 8.017 for sex in the model, p =.000. Females could be expected to have coping scores 6.4 points higher than males when adjusted for stress levels, as: B= 6.351, p =0.001 for sex in the model. For each 1 point increase in Stress Score, the Coping Score could be expected to: increase 6.8 points when adjusted for sex, where B = 6.751 and p =0.000.

Increased prevalence of emotional pre-occupation was only observed among female patients which increased with the increase in stress. Psychological interventions in female HD patients should be strongly considered in addressing emotional pre-occupation coping.