Search

Kidney stones and infections significantly affect patients' health-related quality of life (HRQOL); however, the relationship between urinary tract infections (UTIs) and HRQOL in patients with kidney stones remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the relationship using the validated Chinese version of the Wisconsin Stone Quality of Life questionnaire (C-WISQOL). We prospectively recruited 307 patients with kidney stones to complete the C-WISQOL before and after stone removal. The participants were diagnosed with UTI based on the presence of pyuria or bacteriuria with or without clinical symptoms. The psychometric properties of the C-WISQOL were statistically analyzed. Multivariate linear regression was used to predict the risk factors for impaired HRQOL in patients with stones and UTIs. The questionnaire is a reliable and robust tool for evaluating HRQOL in Chinese-speaking patients with urolithiasis. The UTI and kidney stone co-occurrence was significantly associated with female sex, diabetes mellitus, more previous stone events, higher antibiotic usage, positive stone- or UTI-related symptoms, and postoperative residual stones. The preoperative C-WISQOL scores and improvement in the HRQOL after stone removal in patients clinically diagnosed with UTI were significantly inferior to those in patients without UTI. The regression analyses showed that worse HRQOL was predicted by more previous stone events and positive stone- or UTI-related symptoms. In contrast, the presence of diabetes mellitus and postoperative residual stone fragments predicted a lower improvement in the HRQOL. These findings underscore UTI's harmful impact on perioperative HRQOL in patients with kidney stones and could help strategies benefit those patients., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Urinary tract infection is the most common infection among people with a kidney transplant and increases the risk of graft rejection. Women have a higher risk. A literature search did not identify any description of the phenomenon of urinary tract infection experienced by women with a kidney transplant., Objective: To examine how women with a kidney transplant experienced the phenomenon of a urinary tract infection., Design: A qualitative study with a phenomenological approach., Approach: Eight individual semistructured interviews based on van Manen's four lifeworld existentials and analysed using systematic text condensation., Participants: Women with a kidney transplant and recently been admitted to the hospital due to a urinary tract infection., Findings: We identified four themes: (1) Feeling both typical and atypical symptoms; (2) Becoming aware of the body and trying her best to prevent urinary tract infection; (3) Having a urinary tract infection is a dual experience, both good and bad; (4) Support from relatives., Conclusion: The urinary tract infection symptoms pathway varied between participants but also between individual episodes of incidents among each participant. Participants felt secure when they experienced a common symptom pattern, but a new symptom pattern made them insecure. Together with their relatives, they experienced a urinary tract infection as a disruption of their everyday life and it decreased their experiences of happiness. They experienced to be supported by relatives but also by healthcare professionals, but needed more information on how to prevent, observe and react to a urinary tract infection in the future., (© 2023 The Authors. Journal of Renal Care published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Dialysis & Transplant Nurses Association/European Renal Care Association.)