[Quality of life in patients with chronic kidney disease without dialysis or transplant: a random sample from two insurance companies. Medellín, Colombia, 2008].

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the health related quality of life in patients with chronic kidney disease without dialysis or transplant and your association with risk factors.
DESIGN: It was a descriptive transversal study from a representative sample belongs to two Health Insurance Organizations. We applied the medical outcomes study 36-item short form and the scores were associated with some demographics and clinics variables.
RESULTS: The median age was 70 years, 67% were men, 93% had hypertension and 67% were in stage three. The physical aspects of quality of life were more affected than mental components (Wilcoxon p < 0,001) and the physical functioning, role-physical and body pain domains were better in younger men. In addition, the Physical component was most associated with social-demographics and clinics conditions than mental component. Women older than 65 years old with chronic kidney disease and diabetes mellitus obtained lowest scores among all patients. There was no association between glomerular filtration rate and physical health when we fit them by age. There was a significant difference between physical component of quality of life by sex (p<0,001), which 12.5% of variance was explained by age.
CONCLUSION: Physical component of quality of life was significantly reduced compared with mental component among patient with chronic kidney disease without dialysis and transplant. Their scores were lower than general population. The oldest women were the most affected.