Speaker Biography

Dr. Tayseer Afifi

The Islamic University - Gaza, Gaza, Palestine

Title: The Effect of Spirituality & Cognitive Perception on the Quality of Life Among Patients Undergoing Hemodialysis and Its Correlation with Their Mental Health Status

Dr. Tayseer Afifi
Biography:

Dr. Tayseer is a 5th year medical student at faculty of medicine at The Islamic University-Gaza. He is an eager, enthusiastic young researcher. He has authored many important research papers and presented them at national and international conferences. He completed one-year online course with WHO Collaboration Center for Sexual and Reproductive Health with University of North Carolina on Implementation Science. He serves on the Editorial board of many peer-reviewed medical journals. His research interest includes many fields; cardiac diseases especially CVD risk management in diabetic patients, neonatal care, palliative care, rehabilitation and physical medicine, pulmonology and respiratory medicine especially the management of chronic respiratory diseases and neurology. In his spare time, he participates in raising awareness campaigns and helps young students in starting their research projects. His personal interests are reading and playing football.

Abstract:

Background: Individual health is not only determined by the physical wellbeing of us but they are other as important dimension. The spiritual dimension of a patient's life is an important factor that may mediate detrimental impacts on mental health. Spiritual aspects of health-related quality of life among hemodialysis patients, either with chronic kidney disease or end-stage renal failure, have not been fully assessed.

Methods: This was a prospective, cohort, correlation design study of 440 adult patients on maintenance hemodialysis at four centers for hemodialysis in Gaza Strip. Participants were asked to complete a face-to-face interview. The interview contained questions on personal information and four scales. The scales were; FACIT-Sp-12, DASS-21, The Illness Perception Questionnaire (Brief Version) and the quality of life index SF-36.

Findings: Our study involved the interviewing of 440 patients. The hemodialysis patients had, on average, relatively good levels of spiritual well-being, moderate depression, severe anxiety, and mild to moderate stress. The results of the regression models indicated that aspects of spiritual well-being were negatively associated with depression, anxiety, and stress. However, we found that the more comorbidities the patients had, the better spiritually they are. On the other hand, all patients reported low scores regarding their quality of life. Interestingly, some patients believed that their emotional status greatly affected their disease progression. There were no significant differences between male and female patients.

Interpretation: Better spiritual and existential well-being of hemodialysis patients were significantly associated with less depression, anxiety, and stress. It appears that these patients use religious practices and spiritual beliefs as coping mechanisms to overcome their depression, anxiety, and stress. Furthermore, religion and spirituality cannot be separated from other physical complaints particularly in our culture as people in our region tend to be religious by nature.