Psychosocial factors play an important role in the post-transplant period, affecting adherence and quality of life. We investigated the relationships between social support, attitude towards the transplant (txp) and feelings of powerlessness in 15 randomly selected long-term post-kidney txp patients. There were 9 women (60%), 11 Blacks (73%), 11 ddtxp (73%), 7 DM (46%), 4 were married or living with someone (27%), 1 was employed (6%) and 14 (93%) made <$20K/yr. Pt age was 61.6+/-2.6, txp age (yrs) 8.53+/-1.5, BMI 27.6+/-1.5, creat 1.5+/-0.3. Loss of control, social support and attitudes toward the transplant were assessed using a previously validated Likert-scale based questionnaire. Loss of control was assessed by agreement with statements regarding feeling in control of ones life and ability to cope with stress. Social support was divided into mental (MEN) and physical (PHY) and included questions about the presence of someone to confide in, take you to the doctor, help if you were confined to bed or help with meals or chores. It was not related to age, marital status, gender, txp age or txp type. Attitudes towards txp included agreement or disagreement with statements regarding txp medications and happiness with the transplant itself. Pts who felt more out of control were more likely to agree with the statements “I get depressed (or angry or upset) when I think about my kidney transplant” (r values 0.5-0.6, p<0.05). They also had less social support (r=0.52, p<0.05). Pts with strong MEN social support were more likely to believe that the transplant cured their kidney disease (r=0.57, p<0.05), and less likely to report that the txp made them angry (p=-0.53, p<0.05). Both MEN or PHY support made pts more likely to agree that they understood their transplant medications (r=0.53, p<0.05 (PHY), r=0.8 (MEN), p<0.0005). We conclude, in our population of indigent, inner-city patients: 1. Social support is independent of age, txp age, marital status, transplant type and gender. 2. Pts with strong social support are less likely to feel overwhelmed or out of control and have better understanding of their transplant experience. 3. Even in long-term recipients, feelings of anger and anxiety persist, and are worse in those with poor social support. 4. As adherence has been associated with attitude toward the transplant, we believe it is important to continually assess social support as the patient and kidney age, in order to intervene should circumstances change.

CITATION INFORMATION: Wu S, Brar A, Markell M. Impact of Social Support on Feelings of Powerlessness and Attitudes Towards the Kidney Transplant in Long-Term Inner City Recipients. Am J Transplant. 2016;16 (suppl 3).

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