NIV Congres

Objective High expectations regarding personal consequences of donation (e.g. personal growth) are suggested to be an important component in the psychosocial screening of potential living kidney donors. However, little is known about who has high expectations and what the potential consequences may be. In this study, we explored the relationship between the psychological profile of living kidney donors and their expectations before donation.

Methods A cohort of potential living kidney donors (N=137) completed the following questionnaires before donation: Living Donation Expectancies Questionnaire, Brief Symptom Inventory, Positive And Negative Affect Schedule, Satisfaction With Life Scale, Mental Health Continuum-Short Form, stress-subscale of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale, Brief COPE, Social Support List Interactions, and the Social Support List Discrepancies. We obtained sociodemographic characteristics from medical records.

Results Using multiple linear regression analyses we found that higher expectations regarding Interpersonal Benefit were related to higher depression, higher negative affect, lower phobic anxiety, and higher experienced social support. Higher expectations regarding Personal Growth were related to higher negative affect and a lower level of education. Expectations regarding Spiritual Benefit were higher if the donor had a religious affiliation and among those with a lower education. Higher expectations regarding negative Health Consequences were related to older age, higher negative affect, less use of an active coping style, and a lower level of education.

Conclusions Donors with higher negative affect and lower education had higher positive and negative expectations regarding the donation process. What is not yet clear from these data is the direction of causality between these factors. An important question is the extent to which high expectations of donation relate to subsequent mental health after donation. We are currently investigating this in a prospective cohort study among all our living donors.