Abstract
Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) implies longstanding (more than 3 months), and usually progressive, impairment in renal function. Due to the life–long illness, majority of CKD patients may trigger physiologic, psychological, and social stressors at any point during the disease, thus, placing a barrier for them in maintaining the normal life-style and may also reduce their quality of life. Objectives: The study was designed; to find out the prevalence of depression among CKD patients on dialysis in central region of KSA and to evaluate their life style, social relationship & quality of life.

Methods: It was an observational cross – sectional Hospital based study. The data was collected from 159 CKD patients of either sex from Haemodialysis units at King Abdulaziz Medical City, National Guard, Riyadh, King Saud Medical City, Riyadh and King Khalid General Hospital, Almajmaah. Demographic data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire, severity of depression was measured through “Beck Depression Inventory’, and quality of life was measured through WHOQOL. All the data was entered and analyzed using SPSS 20.0.

Results: The prevalence of depression among CKD patients was 57%. Majority of the patients had depression at the beginning of the condition after being diagnosed with CKD 112 (70.4%), majority of the patients 127 (79.9%) were leading normal social life despite of being diseased. Depression scale and depression at the beginning of the condition were significantly associated (p=0.043), showing patients with mild mood disturbance (n=48, 30.2%), those having borderline clinical depression were (n=28, 17.6%), (n=38, 23.9%) had moderate depression, whereas, (n=23, 14.5%) had severe depression. Significant association was also observed between depression scale and the QOL scale (p<0.001), showing that those with acceptable quality of life had borderline depression (n=22, 78.5%) and those with unacceptable quality of life, majority of them had severe depression (n=16, 69.5%).

Conclusion : A high proportion of CKD patients on dialysis experienced depression eventually resulting in an impaired quality of life.

Key words: Chronic Kidney Disease, World Health Organization, Quality of Life, Depression