Assessment of sleep disturbance in renal transplant recipients and associated risk factors

Sleep disturbances are highly prevalent in ESRD patients. In this study we sought to evaluate the associations of poor sleep with several genetic, laboratory, treatment and de­mographic factors in renal allograft recipients using a validated sleep quality questionnaire. A cross-sectional study was conducted on renal transplant patients over 18 years of age with stable current stable graft function. All patients completed PSQI and Ifudu questionnaires for assessment of sleep quality and morbidity measures. Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used for evaluation of distributions besides Student s t-test, and Fisher s exact test for analyses. Mean total PSQI score for the whole patients was 6.5 ± 2.6. Overall 26 (67%) of patients were diagnosed as poor sleepers (PSQI total score ? 5) and the reminding 13 (33%) were good sleepers. Compared to good sleepers, poor sleepers significantly had higher serum phosphate levels and ESRD duration (P= 0.05). Hematological disorders were more seen in poor sleepers and musculo­skeletal disorders had a significant worsening impact on PSQI total score (?= 0.28, P= 0.05). In conclusion our study showed that sleep disturbance is common in renal transplant patients is sur­prisingly common, and ESRD duration prior to transplant was significantly associate with sleep quality. Future studies with larger sample sizes are necessary for confirming our results.