Purpose: To explore the factors associated with self-management of Peritoneal Dialysis (PD) patients and methods of acquiring PD knowledge.
Design: Cross-sectional survey design.
Setting: Urumqi, Xinjiang, China.
Patients: 131 Chinese maintenance Peritoneal Dialysis (PD) patients.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted from October 2019 to March 2020 in the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University of China. 131 PD patients were recruited. Data were collected, including demographic characteristics, clinical dialysis data, self-management ability scale, and methods to obtain PD knowledge. A self-management questionnaire was used for the evaluation of self-management ability.
Results: The score of the self-management ability of PD patients in Xinjiang, China, was (57.6± 13.7) points, which was at the middle level in China. There was no statistically significant difference in the self-management ability scores of patients with different ages, sex, ethnicity, marital status, pre-dialysis status, PD time, PD procedures, self-care ability, PD satisfaction, and 24-hour average urine output (P> 0.05). There were significant differences in the self-management ability scores of patients with different education levels, occupations, and medical insurance forms (P< 0.05). The self-management ability of PD patients was positively correlated with the disease course of uremia and attending lectures on PD knowledge (P< 0.05). The main factor affecting self-management ability was education level. There 73.28% of patients considered that it was necessary to establish a WeChat group for PD patients, and 65.7% believed that establishing a WeChat group for PD patients could facilitate communication between patients and enhance treatment confidence.
Conclusion: The study surveyed PD patients who have certain self-management ability. For patients with different education levels, different health education methods should be adopted to promote the improvement of patients’ self-management ability. Furthermore, WeChat is essential for Chinese PD patients to obtain disease-related information.
Keywords: peritoneal dialysis, self-management, education level, influencing factors