scholarly journals Digital tools towards transplant first policy: Improving health literacy

Author(s):  
Daniela Nogueira ◽  
◽  
Manuela Almeida ◽  
Anabela Rodrigues ◽  
◽  
...  

End stage kidney disease (ESKD) is a prevalent health issue across the world and it is well established that kidney transplantation (KT), specifically from a living donor, is currently the best value-based treatment method. Ergo, it is crucial to invest heavily in making this care strategy the best possible option for the majority of eligible patients. Barriers to the kidney transplant process are mainly related to education and accessibility: awareness of the clinical and societal relevance of the therapy must be promoted at the level of patients, clinicians and health providers. A health-literacy-focused website has been developed as part of this, aiming to provide the general population, particularly potential organ receptors and donors, with better access to trustworthy information and data. This was meant to be the effective expression of knowledge diffusion and innovation as a result of an academic master thesis. This communication-focused digital resource is designed to combat these obstacles and to create a long-lasting, positive and significant impact.

BMJ Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. e041404
Author(s):  
Karumathil Murali ◽  
Judy Mullan ◽  
Steven Roodenrys ◽  
Maureen Lonergan

ObjectivesLower health literacy (HL) is associated with poor outcomes in patients with kidney disease. Since HL matches the patient’s competencies with the complexities of the care package, the level of HL sufficient in earlier stages of chronic kidney disease (CKD) may be inadequate for patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) on dialysis. We aimed to analyse the HL profile of patients with ESKD and non-dialysis CKD and examine if there were significant associations with covariates which could be targeted to address HL deficits, thereby improving patient outcomes.Design and settingCross-sectional study of patients with CKD and ESKD from a single Australian health district.MethodsWe assessed the HL profile of 114 patients with CKD and 109 patients with ESKD using a 44-item multidomain Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ) and examined its association with demographic factors (age, gender, race), smoking, income, education, comorbidities, carer status, cognitive function and depression. Using multivariable logistic regression models, HL profiles of patients with CKD and ESKD were evaluated after adjusting for covariates.ResultsPatients with ESKD had similar demographics and educational levels compared with patients with CKD. ESKD had significantly higher frequency of vascular disease, cognitive impairment and depression. Patients with ESKD had better HL scores for the social support domain (37.1% vs 19.5% in higher HLQ4 tertile, p=0.004), whereas all other HL domains including engagement with healthcare providers were comparable to CKD. Depression was independently associated with nearly all of the HL domains (HLQ1: OR 2.6, p=0.030; HLQ2: OR 7.9, p=<0.001; HLQ3: OR 7.6, p<0.001; HLQ4: OR 3.5, p=0.010; HLQ5: OR 8.9, p=0.001; HLQ6: OR 3.9, p=0.002; HLQ7: OR 4.8, p=0.001; HLQ8: OR 5.3, p=0.001) and education with HL domains relevant to processing health-related information (HLQ8: OR 2.6, p=0.008; HLQ9: OR 2.5, p=0.006).ConclusionsDespite very frequent interactions with health systems, patients with ESKD on dialysis did not have higher HL in engagement with health providers and most other HL domains, compared with patients with CKD. Strategies promoting patient–provider engagement and managing depression which strongly associates with lower HL may address the impact of HL deficits and favourably modify clinical outcomes in renal patients.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Dawson ◽  
Anna Hoffman ◽  
Elizabeth Josland ◽  
Alison Smyth ◽  
Frank Brennan ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 57-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robyn Levine ◽  
Karina Javalkar ◽  
Meaghan Nazareth ◽  
Richard A. Faldowski ◽  
Maria Diaz-Gonzalez de Ferris ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (11) ◽  
pp. 6525-6530
Author(s):  
JANOS DOCS ◽  
DANIEL BANYAI ◽  
TIBOR FLASKO ◽  
ARPAD SZANTO ◽  
GYULA KOVACS

Author(s):  
Eva Pella ◽  
Afroditi Boutou ◽  
Aristi Boulmpou ◽  
Christodoulos E Papadopoulos ◽  
Aikaterini Papagianni ◽  
...  

Abstract Chronic kidney disease (CKD), especially end-stage kidney disease (ESKD), is associated with increased risk for cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality. Exercise intolerance as well as reduced cardiovascular reserve are extremely common in patients with CKD. Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) is a non-invasive, dynamic technique that provides an integrative evaluation of cardiovascular, pulmonary, neuropsychological and metabolic function during maximal or submaximal exercise, allowing the evaluation of functional reserves of these systems. This assessment is based on the principle that system failure typically occurs when the system is under stress and, thus, CPET is currently considered to be the gold-standard for identifying exercise limitation and differentiating its causes. It has been widely used in several medical fields for risk stratification, clinical evaluation and other applications but its use in everyday practice for CKD patients is scarce. This article describes the basic principles and methodology of CPET and provides an overview of important studies that utilized CPET in patients with ESKD, in an effort to increase awareness of CPET capabilities among practicing nephrologists.


Author(s):  
Micaella Sotera Hansen ◽  
Wubshet Tesfaye ◽  
Beena Sewlal ◽  
Bharati Mehta ◽  
Kamal Sud ◽  
...  

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document