Mental Recovery and Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors in Individuals with Kidney Disease: A Cross-sectional Study

Background: Nurses provide psychosocial care through individualized and recovery-oriented approaches and play a critical role in supporting patients’ mental recovery and promoting adherence to healthy lifestyle behaviors among individuals with kidney disease. Kidney disease affects psychological well-being, yet the concept of mental recovery and its relationship with healthy lifestyle behaviors remains understudied.

Aim: This study aimed to investigate mental recovery and healthy lifestyle behaviors in patients with kidney disease.

Methods: This descriptive and correlational study was conducted between January and September 2023. A total of 138 patients completed a demographic information form, the Mental Recovery Scale (MRS), and the Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile II (HPLP II). Data were collected through face-to-face surveys. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and simple and multivariate regression analyses were used to analyze the data.

Results: The mean age of participants was 49.59±12.54 years, 52.9% were male, and the mean duration of diagnosis was 42.74±52.23 months. The mean scores were 85.04±8.14 for the MRS and 135.70±18.43 for the HPLP II. The results indicated a positive and significant relationship between the total MRS score and the HPLP II subscales—Health Responsibility, Nutrition, Spiritual Growth, Interpersonal Relationships, and Stress Management. Mental recovery was significantly predicted by health responsibility, nutrition, spiritual growth, interpersonal relationships, stress management, and overall health-promoting lifestyle behaviors.

Conclusion: Mental recovery was found to be moderately high and closely linked to health-promoting lifestyle behaviors. These findings suggest that promoting healthy lifestyle behaviors may enhance mental recovery in individuals with kidney disease and support more holistic psychosocial care.