Hemodialysis treatment brings many changes, health complications, and adjustment requirements in patients’ lives. Patients with chronic kidney disease often also have cognitive problems that worsen as the disease progresses. The aim of our study was to assess the cognitive abilities of hemodialysis patients. The study included 44 participants of the chronic hemodialysis program at the Dialysis Centre of the Clinical Department of Nephrology at the University Medical Centre Ljubljana. Participants’ cognitive abilities were assessed with a battery of tests including a screening test to assess general cognitive functioning, test to assess attention (reaction speed, selective attention, and divided attention), processing speed, and executive abilities. The results showed that more than half of the patients in our sample experienced problems with general cognitive abilities (52% of individuals scored below the cut-off), 35 % of the patients had impaired alertness and psychomotor speed, and executive abilities were impaired in some of the age and education groups of the patients in the sample. The results are consistent with studies from abroad that have also found cognitive problems in patients undergoing hemodialysis treatment. The results of this study provide a starting point for developing and testing the effectiveness of interventions to prevent cognitive decline in this population.
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