A more proactive rather than reactive approach is needed by nephrologists to educate patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) about lifestyle interventions that are specific to their respective care needs, said Curtis Warfield, MS, senior quality analyst, Indiana State Department of Health, and regional leader of the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) Kidney Advocacy Committee.
Warfield, diagnosed in 2012 with stage 3 CKD, is a transplant recipient who sits on several committees, including the NKF Patient Diversity Task Force and the NKF/American Society of Nephrology (ASN) Task Force.
Warfield was speaking during a session at the ASN Kidney Week 2022 meeting, titled “Barriers and Facilitators to Adopting Lifestyle Interventions: A Patient’s Perspective.”
Transcription
How would you describe the current process of education, implementation and management of lifestyle intervention strategies for patients with CKD?
Well, I see the way things are taught to patients or patients are educated in a more reactive way. It’s something where the patient will maybe go to the next stage or get diagnosed and then education comes along. It is, as I said, reactionary, rather than proactive.
So we need to change that so that education is done with the patient as the patient goes through different stages instead of this is what happened and this is what you need to do now. That’s the way I see things.
From a patient perspective, what barriers impede adherence and integration of suggested common lifestyle interventions for CKD management, and how can these challenges affect equitable care outcomes?
I see these inequalities as being, one, as we speak, education. People need to know what is going on. They need to understand exactly what kidney disease is about, what has affected them, how has that affected them. And then what can they do about it, whether it’s dietary, whether it’s exercise, just learning more? When they understand, their family understands because their family is going to be their greatest support.
So we need to really or really emphasize that educational piece along with getting to know your doctor and trying to build that relationship so that you can better understand what’s going on between the two of you.
What are some factors that nephrologists and other attending physicians should consider when choosing lifestyle interventions that are specific to the needs of each individual patient?
I see and feel that nephrologists need to learn about the patient, learn about the patient’s lifestyle, learn about their background, their culture. What do they eat? Where they live? Are they in some kind of food desert? Are they low income? Are they high income?
His educational background: things that make that patient work. And if he learns more about the person, he can direct his care plans to her and make her feel a little bit better about what he’s dealing with and also see what’s going on and treat her better.
Source: news.google.com