The happiness and subjective well-being of people on haemodialysis

BACKGROUND: Happiness is a construct that has been gaining more prominence in both social and health research. The measure of happiness, subjective well-being, has not been rigorously explored in the end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) population. OBJECTIVES: To measure the subjective well-being of people with ESKD on haemodialysis and to compare their subjective well-being with a general population cohort. DESIGN: A cross-sectional design measuring the subjective well-being of an Australian haemodialysis cohort compared with a non-dialysis age-matched cohort. PARTICIPANTS: The haemodialysis cohort (N = 172), recruited from eight dialysis centres, had a mean age of 64.04 years (SD = 14.82) and included 104 males (60.5%) and 66 (38.4%) females. The non-dialysis cohort (N = 200), randomly extracted from the 2012 Australian Unity Wellbeing Index, had a mean age of 63.97 (SD = 14.68) and included 101 males (50.5%) and 99 females (49.5%). MEASUREMENT: Subjective well-being was measured using the Personal Wellbeing Index. This seven-item measure rates satisfaction with life in seven domains: standard of living, health, achievements in life, relationships, safety, community and future security. RESULTS: The haemodialysis cohort reported lower general life satisfaction, life achievements, relationship and personal safety compared to the general population. There were no differences between the two groups for health, community and future security. Standard of living and satisfaction with life achievements carried higher importance in subjective well-being compared with health satisfaction CONCLUSION: Subjective well-being can be an important indicator of people's life quality to be considered by clinicians and nephrology researchers in future studies.