Perceived Health Status and Life Orientation (Optimism) after Renal Transplantation

A longitudinal study was carried out on renal transplant recipients with a healthy kidney functioning in Lahore, Pakistan, to find out how recipients’ life orientation influences their perceptions of physical health status. Perceived Health Status (PHS) was measured by a self-developed questionnaire that reflected the symptom severity and frequency measured by the common immune-suppressant side effects. Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R; Scheier, Carver, & Bridges, 1994) was used to measure optimism. Statistical analysis involved linear regression and cross lagged correlation analysis (CLC). It was found that most recipients tend to have an optimistic attitude and a positive perception of their health status. Although both PHS and optimism were found to be significant predictors of each other, however, it was clarified that recipients’ with a better PHS, that is, healthy graft functioning tend to be more optimistic because of their improved health status. Socio-demographic factors including age, education level, time since transplant, and financial condition reflected by monthly family income were also analysed for their effect. Age was found to be the only factor affecting PHS and optimism across three times. Younger recipients reported better PHS and tend to be more optimistic. Work status (working vs. nonworking recipients) was found to be significant predictor of optimism at Time 1 and of PHS at Time2 and 3 only, not showing a consistent pattern across 15 months.