Impact of Provision of Holistic Health Literacy on Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) via In-Person and Mobile Application in CKD Patients with Diabetes Mellitus

OBJECTIVES:

1. To provide holistic health literacy on chronic kidney disease (CKD) among diabetes mellitus (DM) patients with chronic kidney disease. 

2. To determine usability of a mobile application to reinforce holistic health literacy on chronic kidney disease (CKD) among diabetes mellitus (DM) patients with chronic kidney disease.

3. To compare the impact of CKD health education via mobile application and in-person versus in-person education only to improve health literacy retard the progression of diabetic kidney disease and increase quality of life diabetes mellitus patients with chronic kidney disease. 

BACKGROUD OF STUDY:

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a worldwide health problem, with an estimated 10% to 13% of the world's population being affected. CKD is classified into 5 stages; stage 1 and 2 are considered mild, stage 3 and 4 are considered moderate, and stage 5 is referred to as end-stage kidney disease (ESKD). End-stage kidney disease is an advanced stage of CKD where the function of the kidney fails and dialysis is indicated. Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is a complication of DM and it is constituting the single most common cause of end- stage renal disease (ESKD) in the world. The incidence of new dialysis patients secondary to DM has increased from 44% in 2000 to 69% in 2018. Total annual expenditure of ESRD by the public sector has grown from RM572 million in 2010 to RM1.12 billion in 2016. Therefore, it is essential to delay the progression of CKD to ESRD stage, especially in DM patients. 

DM patients with often face dilemma as they frequently receive advice from many parties such as traditional healers and supplement sellers regarding their DKD condition and treatment. This is among the main reason which made them confused, less adhered to proper treatment and applied wrong dietary practices which led to rapid DKD progression to ESRD. Low health literacy was found to affect 25% of people with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and is associated with increased morbidity and death. Improving health literacy is a recognised priority in CKD. Besides that, the quality of life was also found to be decreased in all stages of kidney disease. A reduction in physical functioning, physical role functioning and in the physical component summary was observed progressively in the different stages of kidney disease. 

METHODOLOGY:

Therefore, a holistic health literacy approach would help in managing this confusion and wrong practices, thus lead to a better disease control and quality of life. This holistic educational module will include a bio-psychosocial approach to chronic kidney disease, including proper nutrition and lifestyle. Evidence showed educational with self-management interventions may increase knowledge, improve self-care behaviour scores, self-efficacy, improve QoL physical component score and may make some difference to slowing the progression of CKD. The module will be delivered in-person and a mobile application will be used to reinforce the education received in half of the participants. The results of the education module will be measured via a health checkup and quality of life measures in 3 and 6 months after the education module started.

Dana yang ingin dikumpulkan adalah sebanyak RM 5,500 . 90% daripada dana yang disumbangkan ini akan digunakan untuk memenuhi keperluan untuk menjalankan projek/penyelidikan/aktiviti ini. 10% daripada jumlah yang disumbangkan akan dimasukkan ke dalam tabung endowment penyelidikan UniSZA. Dana ini akan dilaburkan dan keuntungan yang bakal dijana akan digunakan untuk mendanai aktiviti penyelidikan UniSZA pada masa akan datang.