Description
Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a global health issue that significantly impacts patients’ quality of life due to physical and emotional symptoms. Anxiety and depression are common in these patients, negatively affecting their prognosis and treatment adherence. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) is a popular tool for assessing these disorders, but it has not been validated in Chilean renal patients. Methods: In a sample of 442 CKD patients from hospital centers in Chile, the factor structure, internal consistency, and concurrent validity of the HADS were evaluated using confirmatory factor analysis, Cronbach’s alpha, McDonald’s omega, and correlations with the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21), respectively. Results: Analyses showed a good fit for the two correlated factors model, with anxiety and depression subscales demonstrating high internal consistency. Significant correlations between HADS and DASS-21 confirmed concurrent validity. Conclusions: These findings suggest that the HADS is a valid and reliable tool for assessing anxiety and depression in Chilean CKD patients, facilitating timely psychological interventions and improving patients’ quality of life. Future studies should include more diverse samples and assess the temporal stability of the scales to confirm these findings.
Funding: This work was supported by the research project PID2020-115486GB-I00 funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, Government of Spain; the Chilean
government project FONDECYT Regular 1250316 funded by the National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development, ANID; and Fondecyt Iniciación 11200099, Government of Chile.
