Determination of self-care power of hemodialysis patients

Abstract

This study was designed as a descriptive-cross-sectional study in order to determine self-care ability in hemodialysis patients. The study was conducted with participation of 254 patients who received treatment in three dialysis centers between November 1, 2015 and January 30, 2016, who volunteered to participate in the study and were able cooperate with the researchers. The data were collected using a questionnaire comprised of 17 items and Self-Care Agency Scale. Self-Care Agency Scale was developed in 1979 by Kearney and Fleischer and was adapted to Turkish by Nahçivan. It is a Likert-type scale comprised of 35 items. The minimum possible score is 35, the maximum possible score is 140. Higher scores show greater self-care ability. Data were evaluated by calculating percentages and using one-way ANOVA, t-test, and Tukey test. Of all the study participants, 46.5% were female and 53.5% were male; 36.2% were primary school graduates; 98.4% had a social security; 84.3% had income levels that were equal to their expenditures; 68.5% lived in city centers. Mean age of the participants was 58.2 ± 12.9years. 80.3% of the patients had accompanying chronic disease; 39.4% have been undergoing dialysis for 1-5 years; 96.1% were undergoing dialysis for 3 times a week; 54.3% described their health as good; 53.5% had changes in their daily life activities due to dialysis treatment; and 29.9% had their familial and social life affected by dialysis treatment.  The mean total score from Self-Care Agency Scale was calculated as 112.4 ± 10.3. Self-Care Agency Scale score was found to correlate with some sociodemographic and clinical features of the patients (p<0.05). It was found that patients had above intermediate level of Self-Care Agency Scale scores. In light of the study results, it is recommended that patients are educated to further improve their self-care ability.

Keywords: Hemodialysis, Self-care, Behavior, Knowledge, Application.