The purpose of this study was to discover kidney transplant and hemodialysis patients' quality of life(QOL) and provide basic data to improve their QOL.

One hundred two hemodialysis patients and 106 kidney transplant patients were given a self-administered questionnaire from Mar. 6 to Mar. 31, 2006. The instrument consisted of demographic variables, therapeutic-related characteristics and QOL. Collected data was processed using the SPSS 12.0 statistical program for real numbers, percentages, ANCOVA, t-test, ANOVA, Stepwise multiple regression and the Scheffe test.

Kidney transplantpatients' QOL was higher than hemodialysis patients. The demographic variables which showed a significant difference in overall QOL were religion, children and monthly income for kidney transplantpatients and educational background for hemodialysis patients. The therapeutic-related variable which showed a significant difference in overall QOL was the patients' perceived health condition for both groups. The influencing factor on overall QOL for both groups was the health condition perceived by themselves. The total variance of the variable for QOL was 42% for kidney transplant patients and 19% for hemodialysis patients.

This study revealed that kidney transplant patients have a higher QOL and how patients perceive their health is the strongest influencing factor for QOL. However, there is a large difference between the demand and supply of kidney donors. To solve this problem the standards for donation should be reviewed and revised.