Psychosocial Health Among Young Adults With Kidney Failure: A Longitudinal Follow-up of the SPEAK (Surveying Patients Experiencing Young Adult Kidney Failure) Study.

Rationale & Objective: There have been no longitudinal studies examining the evolution of psychosocial health of young adults with kidney failure as they age. We aimed to address this in the Surveying Patients Experiencing Young Adult Kidney Failure-2 (SPEAK-2) study.

Study Design: 5-year follow-up longitudinal survey of the original SPEAK cohort.

Setting & Participants: 16- to 30-year-olds in the UK receiving kidney replacement therapy (KRT) between 2015 and 2017 who participated in the SPEAK study.

Exposure: Kidney failure and KRT modality.

Outcomes: Psychosocial health and lifestyle behaviors.

Analytical Approach: Within-cohort changes in psychosocial health were analyzed using the paired test, Wilcoxon signed-rank test and McNemar's test. We compared responses to the age-matched population and examined the impact of changes in KRT modality on psychological health using linear regression for continuous outcome variables as well as logistic, ordered logistic and multinomial logistic regression for binary, ordered categorical and unordered categorical variables, respectively.

Results: We obtained 158 survey responses; 129 had previously responded to SPEAK. Of these, 90% had a kidney transplant. Compared to the general population, respondents were less likely to be married or have children and were more likely to be living with their parents. Respondents had nearly 15 times greater odds of being unable to work due to health (odds ratio [OR] = 14.41; 95% confidence interval [CI], 8.0-26.01;  < 0.001). Respondents had poorer quality of life and mental wellbeing and were more likely to report psychological problems (OR = 5.37; 95% CI, 3.45-8.35;  < 0.001). A negative association between remaining on or moving to dialysis and psychosocial health was observed, although this was attenuated when controlling for the psychosocial state in SPEAK.

Limitations: Low response rate resulting in imprecise and potentially biased estimates and impact of COVID-19 pandemic while survey was active on psychosocial health.

Conclusions: Young adults with kidney failure have persistent poorer psychosocial health compared to their healthy peers as they age. Our findings also suggest a potential causal relationship between KRT modality and psychosocial health.