Uremic pruritus, also called chronic kidney disease-associated Pruritus (CKD-aP), is a symptom of severe and ongoing itching that patients with CKD or end-stage renal disease frequently experience. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the factors associated with moderate-to-severe uremic pruritus in patients receiving chronic hemodialysis. This cross-sectional study was conducted at Dr Sulaiman Al-Habib Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from June to October 2025. The severity of itching was assessed using a single-item scale from 0 to 10, with 0 indicating no itching and 10 indicating maximum itching. Responses of >0 were summed to obtain itching intensity. Among participants, 53 (57.0%) were male. The prevalence of severe itching among participants was 10.8%, with a mean itching scale score of 2.35 ± 2.85 out of 10. The noncitizen participants showed higher itching scores than Saudi patients, with a difference that reached the threshold of statistical significance (4.00 ± 3.43) and (2.18 ± 2.75), respectively. Multivariable logistic regression identified that females were 4 times more likely to have moderate-to-severe itching than males (aOR: 5.64 95% CI: 1.39–22.99). The majority of hemodialysis patients had minor uremic pruritus. Further research involving larger samples is also warranted to investigate the factors contributing to uremic pruritus in hemodialysis patients.
Alghamdi et al. (2026) studied this question.