Effects of social support on anxiety and depression in patients with chronic kidney disease

Objective: To study the prevalence of anxiety and depression in patients with chronic kidney disease(CKD) and the effects of social support on these negative emotions. Methods: A total of 118 inpatients with CKD were surveyed with self-evaluation of anxiety scale(SAS), self-rating of depression scale(SDS) and social support rating scale. Logistic regression analysis was adopted to investigate the influence of social support on the anxiety and depression in patients with CKD. Results: The prevalence of anxiety and depression among CKD patients was 24.58% and 41.53% respectively;and the average score of SAS and SDS was 35.11±7.39 and 39.19±8.32 respectively, which was significantly higher than the national norm(SAS:29.78±10.07, SDS:33.46±8.55)(P<0.01). The average score of social support was 40.9±7.9, which was negatively correlated with SAS(r=-0.28, P<0.01) and SDS(r=-0.22, P<0.05) score. Logistic regression analysis showed that social support was the protective factor for anxiety(OR=0.534, 95%CI:0.30~0.95, P<0.05), while female(OR=2.316, 95%CI:1.01~5.30, P<0.05) and CKD stages(OR=1.536, 95%CI:1.07~2.22, P<0.05) were the risk factors for depression. Conclusions: The positive rates of anxiety and depression in patients with CKD are higher than those in the general population. Social support is the the only protective factor for the negative emotions in patients with CKD.