[Symptom burden in chronic kidney disease-nephrological assessment compared to patients' perspectives (SOMA.CK...

Individuals with nondialysis chronic kidney disease (ND-CKD) often report high somatic symptom burden, though traditional clinical approaches associate symptom burden only with advanced disease stages.

This study compared the symptom burden in ND-CKD as perceived by physicians and patients.

In a German-wide online survey, nephrologists identified the three most common symptoms and the mean symptom burden in CKD using an adapted version of the Chronic Kidney Disease Symptom Burden Index (CKD-SBI). Their assessments were compared with patients' self-reports (CKD-SBI) from the SOMA.CK study.

Responses from N = 108 nephrologists (average professional experience = 14.3 years) were compared with responses from N = 222 individuals with ND-CKD (average age = 61.22 years, standard deviation [SD] = 14.90). Nephrologists most frequently named fatigue (69.44%), oedema (38.89%) and arterial hypertension (35.19%), while patients named nycturia (74.30%), fatigue (61.30%) and sleeping problems (47.30%). Nephrologists significantly overestimated the overall symptom burden and the symptom burden of five single symptoms, while they assessed the severity of 12 symptoms lower and 15 symptoms as comparable.

A discrepancy between the symptom burden reported by physicians and patients with ND-CKD was shown. Thus, giving greater consideration to the patients' perspectives in symptom assessment is recommended.