Investigation of the Validity, Reliability, and Responsiveness of BETY-Biopsychosocial Questionnaire in Individuals with Chronic Kidney Disease, on Dialysis, and Kidney Transplantation

A review of the literature has shown that Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is strongly associated with an increasing degree of psychosocial impact, such as depression and anxiety and a decrease in quality of life. Therefore, while determining the psychosocial aspects of the disease gains importance, it is reported that determining and evaluating the biopsychosocial characteristics may facilitate the disease management of individuals. Considering that CKD is associated with various comorbidities, psychosocial features, and symptom burden, it is interpreted that patient-reported outcome measures may support the complex management of these individuals. Routine collection and use of patient-reported outcome measures may provide valuable data for understanding the disease from both individual and community perspectives, with the potential to improve the quality of care and outcomes.

The Cognitive Exercise Therapy Approach (Bilişsel Egzersiz Terapi Yaklaşımı-BETY) is an innovative exercise model based on physical exercise and an example of a biopsychosocial approach developed for patients with rheumatism. The BETY-Biopsychosocial Questionnaire (BETY-BQ) was created by repeated statistics of improvement characteristics reported by individuals who participated in BETY sessions for many years. The BETY-BQ holistically assesses many biopsychosocial characteristics of the person, such as pain, functionality, mood, sociability, sexuality, and sleep. Therefore, there is a need for scales that assess these symptoms holistically in chronic kidney disease. BETY-BQ can be envisaged as an assessment tool for interdisciplinary healthcare team members who want to evaluate the CKD population, including individuals on dialysis and kidney transplant recipients. Since the BETY-BQ can assess biopsychosocial characteristics quickly and its structure was created with the feedback of individuals with chronic diseases, it aimed to examine its validation in this disease group.

In this study, which investigators planned to contribute to this field, investigators aimed to investigate the validity, reliability, and sensitivity of BETY-BQ in individuals diagnosed with chronic kidney disease on dialysis and kidney transplantation.