Cognitive decline in hemodialysis:prevalence and correlates among the patients of chronic kidney disease

Objective: To determine the prevalence and association of cognitive decline among the patients of chronic kidney disease (CKD) undergoing hemodialysis. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Military Hospital Rawalpindi, between Jul to Dec 2016. Material and Methods: The sample population comprised of patients of chronic kidney disease (CKD) under-going hemodialysis at a tertiary care hospital in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Cognitive decline was assessed by using the British Columbia Cognitive Complaints Inventory (BC-CCI). Relationship of age, gender, marital status, psychiatric morbidity, education, occupation, BMI, duration of dialysis, dialysis count per week, level of family income, use of naswar and tobacco smoking was assessed with the presence of cognitive decline. Results: Out of 140 patients screened through BC-CCI, 86.4% showed the presence of cognitive decline while 13.6% had no cognitive decline. After applying the logistic regression we found that psychiatric morbidity and longer duration of dialysis had significant association with the presence of cognitive decline. Conclusion: This study showed a high prevalence of cognitive decline among the patients of CKD undergoing dialysis. Special attention should be paid to the patients who have some sort of psychiatric morbidity or those who are on dialysis for a longer period of time. (author)