Psychological distress may be linked to poor self-management of chronic kidney disease
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Key takeaways:
- Researchers found 27.2% of patients had psychological distress.
- Higher distress was linked to poorer diet, less physical activity and lower medication adherence.
Psychological distress may be linked to poor self-management of chronic kidney disease, according to a recently published study of patients with CKD who were not on dialysis.
“Beginning with the diagnosis of chronic kidney disease (CKD) onward, patients are confronted with profound changes that require extensive emotional skills. An additional burden is adhering to disease self-management recommendations,” lead researcher Cinderella K. Cardol, PhD, of the health, medical and neuropsychology unit at Leiden University in The Netherlands, and colleagues wrote. “The first aim of our study was to assess the relationship of psychological distress with adherence to CKD self-management.”
Researchers conducted a cross-sectional trial, collecting data from 460 patients with CKD as part of the E-GOAL study. Patients with eGFR between 20 mL/min/1.73m2 and 89 mL/min/1.73m2 completed online screening questionnaires to assess psychological distress, depressive symptoms, anxiety, diet, physical activity, medication adherence, smoking, BMI and CKD self-management index.
Overall, 27.2% of patients reported psychological distress. Researchers also found higher distress was associated with poorer adherence to diet, less physical activity and lower medication adherence. There was no significant association between psychological distress and smoking or BMI.
Depressive symptoms were also associated with poorer adherence to self-management recommendations, according to the study. Anxiety was linked to poorer dietary and medication adherence.
“Tailored interventions to screen for and treat both psychological and self-management difficulties in parallel may be effective in improving physical and psychological outcomes,” the authors wrote.
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