Influence of Type D personality on health-related quality of life among Korean patients with end-stage renal disease

The purposes of this study were to explore the prevalence of Type D personality and the impact of Type D personality (the combination of negative affectivity and social inhibition) on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients and to determine whether this link of Type D personality to HRQOL is mediated by depressive symptoms. Patients (n = 144) from an outpatient nephrology clinic of a university hospital participated in this cross-sectional study. The prevalence of Type D personality using Type D Personality Scale-14 was 26%. After adjustment for patients' characteristics and depressive symptoms in multivariate analysis, Type D personality was an independent predictor of HRQOL. This relation of Type D personality to HRQOL was mediated by depressive symptoms. Our findings underline that intervention should be directed towards reducing depressive symptoms in patients with Type D personality in order to improve HRQOL of ESRD patients.