The relationship between body awareness and quality of life, anxiety level and pain in hemodialysis patients

Hemodialysis (HD) patients often experience high symptom burden, impaired quality of life, and psychological distress. Body awareness, defined as the perceived ability to respond to bodily sensations, has been linked to pain perception, emotional regulation, and overall functioning. However, its role in HD populations remains unclear. The present study investigated the associations of body awareness with quality of life, anxiety, and pain in patients receiving maintenance HD. Twenty-one clinically stable patients with HD (mean age 66.0±7.95 years; 85.7% male) were included. Body awareness, quality of life, anxiety, and pain were assessed using the Turkish versions of the Body Awareness Questionnaire (BAQ), the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP), the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ), respectively. A higher BAQ score was significantly related to a better quality of life in terms of energy (r=-0.443, p=0.044), pain (r=-0.452, p=0.040), emotional reactions (r=-0.506, p=0.019), and sleep (r=-0.487, p=0.025). BAQ scores were also negatively correlated with anxiety levels (r=-0.581, p=0.006) and musculoskeletal pain and disability over the past 12 months (r=-0.821, p