Abstract: Objective  To investigate the status quo of empowerment, self-perceived burden and quality of life in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients, and to analyze the mediating effect of self-perceived burden.  Methods  A total of 235 PD patients hospitalized in the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of Chinese Medicine from November 2022 to May 2023 were selected by convenience sampling method as the study objects. Simplified peritoneal dialysis empowerment scale, self-perceived burden scale and kidney disease quality of life scale were used for the investigation. SPSS 26.0 was used to analyze the correlation between empowerment, self-perceived burden, and quality of life. AMOS24.0 was used to establish a structural equation model, and bootstrap method was used to test the model.   Results  The total score of empowerment in PD patients was 22.83±4.20, the total score of self-perceived burden was 33.03±6.18, and the total score of quality of life was 45.35±5.26. The self-perceived burden was negatively correlated with the total score of empowerment (r=-0.401, P<0.001) and the total score of quality of life (r=-0.426, P<0.001). Empowerment ability of the PD patients directly and positively affected the quality of life. Self-perceived burden played a partial mediating role between empowerment and quality of life (β=0.203, P<0.001), and the mediating effect accounted for 27.78% of the total effect.  Conclusion  The empowerment ability and self-perceived burden of the PD patients were in the medium level, and the quality of life was in the lower middle level. The self-perceived burden had a partial mediating effect between the empowerment ability and the quality of life. We suggest that medical staff should strengthen the empowerment education of the patients, stimulate their inner strength, reduce the self-perceived burden of patients, and improve their quality of life.

Key words: Peritoneal dialysis, Empowerment, Self-perceived burden, Quality of life; , Mediating effect