Abstract

The purposes of this study will be to understand physical symptom distress, quality of sleep and quality of life in patients on hemodialysis, and to explore the influencing factors of these factors. A cross-sectional correlational research will be conducted with a convenience sampling approach. Participants will be selected from one medical center, three district hospitals and five regional hospitals. Inclusive criteria will be as follows. Subjects will be in age of 18-years-old or above, be able to communicate, and undergo hemodialysis for more than 2 months. A questionnaire will be used to collect data and 300 patients will be recruited. The questionnaire will be included 'demographic character index,' 'Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index,' 'Physical Symptom Distress Scale,' and 'SF-36 Taiwan version'. SPSS 13.0 Windows version will be used to analyze data which include frequency, percentage, means, standard deviation and Pearson's product-moment correlation. The result of this research will enhance clinical health providers to understand more about the relationships among hemodialysis patients' physical symptoms, quality of sleep and quality of life. Then, a clinical guide can be developed.

Key words: hemodialysis, quality of sleep, quality of life, physical symptom distress