Factors Associated with Chronic Kidney Disease Self-Management

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affected 26 million U.S. adults. Many end-stage CKD patients undergoing hemodialysis experience self-management challenges. However, factors associated with CKD self-management are under-identified. This article describes a mixed-methods study to identify factors associated with self-management in end-stage CKD patients undergoing hemodialysis. A total of 107 patients age 50 and older were interviewed. Overall, participants had low mean scores for exercise (2.46), communication with physicians (2.50), and cognitive symptom management (0.89) and were adherent for greater than 11 days in a 2-week period with fluid (11.86) and diet (11.65) regimens. There were statistically significant age group differences in the self-management behavior of fluid adherence (p < .05) and communication with physicians (p = .05). None of the respondents discussed communicating with their physicians or cognitive symptom management, yet 90% and 77% of the respondents reported engaging in these behaviors, respectively. The findings from this study support the need for public health social work interventions aimed at increasing self-management behaviors in end-stage CKD patients.