Effect of Increasing the Speed of Pumped Blood Volume Delivered to the Dialyzer on the Sleep Quality of Patients Undergoing Hemodialysis

Aims: Sleep is one of the basic physiological needs of human beings, and sleep quality is an effective criterion on the quality of life of hemodialysis patients. Therefore, paying attention to sleep and its improvement should be a priority in nursing care. This study aimed to determine the effect of increasing the pumped blood volume delivered to dialyzer on sleep quality in hemodialysis patients. Materials Methods: This semi-experimental study is a clinical trial carried out on 50 hemodialysis patients referred to the hospitals affiliated with Tehran University of Medical Sciences in 2011. Convenience sampling selected samples and randomly divided them into control and intervention groups through permuted block randomization. Data were collected by Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index in the three stages before intervention and 2 and 4 weeks after intervention. The blood volume delivered to the dialyzer increased by 25ml in the first two weeks and 50ml in the second two weeks compared to before the intervention. Data were analyzed by SPSS 21 software using repeated measures ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis test.  Findings: The mean score of sleep quality in the intervention group before the intervention and two and four weeks after the intervention were 10.2±2.6, 8.8±3.4 and 6.9±2.9, respectively and in the control group were 11.4±2.8, 12.5±3.3, and 12.6±3.4, respectively. There was no significant difference in the total score of sleep quality and some of its dimensions between the intervention and control groups (p 0.05). Conclusion: Increasing blood volume delivered to the dialyzer has improved hemodialysis patients’ sleep quality, and this improvement seems to be clinically significant.