PUK27 Validity and Reliability of KDQOL-36 in Thai Kidney Disease Patient

Abstract

no one helped with their daily activities, 36% (nϭ150) said their spouse helped them, followed by child (9%, nϭ37), friend (7%, nϭ29), another relative (5%, nϭ21), parent (3%, nϭ12), paid helper (3%, nϭ12), visiting doctor/nurse (3%, nϭ12). Among those who sought caregiver help on daily basis (nϭ195), two-thirds (64%) reported being cared for by spouse, 42% said a friend, and 21% their child. When asked, who helped (always/sometimes) in making health and medical care decision, 86% said spouse, 51 % friend, and 46% child. Almost two-thirds (63%) indicated they had right amount of caregiver support in making treatment choice for blood transfusion, 61% reported they made an informed decision, whereas, 40% said they felt pressured by others. Higher percentage (74%) of previously transfused individuals agreed they have right amount of caregiver support in making a transfusion choice compared to not transfused group (55%). CONCLUSIONS: Caregivers play an important role in helping individuals with their health and medical treatment decisions. On a daily basis, primary caregivers are spouse, child, and friend. Individuals have right amount of caregiver support when making treatment decisions. OBJECTIVES:Post-transplant expectations can be overwhelming. We assessed the relationship between health literacy and unmet immunosuppressant (IS) drug information needs in kidney transplant recipients. We hypothesized that patients with low health literacy have greater unmet IS drug information needs compared to patients with optimal health literacy. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was mailed out to 300 kidney transplant patients recruited from a single urban transplant center. Inclusion criteria were receiving post-transplant care at the center and receiving the transplant 1 to 36 months before inception of the survey. A validated scale measured functional, communicative and critical health literacy. An unmet IS drug information need was defined as a person reporting some to a significant problem and too little information on areas related to IS drug management. A person with 7 or more unmet IS drug information needs was categorized as having high unmet IS drug information needs. Logistic regression was used to produce unadjusted and adjusted OR controlling for age, race, gender, and time since transplant. RESULTS: A response rate of 50% was obtained. 61.3% of respondents were male and the mean age was 56.7 (ϩ/Ϫ 11.2) years. Cronbach's alphas for functional, communicative, and critical health literacy respectively were 0.87, 0.88 and 0.83. Patients with high functional health literacy (ORunadjusted: 0.23 [0.07, 0.82]; ORadjusted: 0.26 [0.06, 1.09]) and patients using the transplant staff as a source of information about transplant medications (ORunadjusted: 0.43 [0.19, 0.94]; ORadjusted: 0.28 [0.10, 0.78])were less likely to report high unmet IS drug information needs. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with low functional health literacy have high unmet IS drug information needs, which might affect the management of their condition. It is i...