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Editorial
. 2021 Feb 15;3(2):153-158.
doi: 10.1016/j.xkme.2021.01.001. eCollection 2021 Mar-Apr.

Living Well With Kidney Disease by Patient and Care-Partner Empowerment: Kidney Health for Everyone Everywhere

Kamyar Kalantar-Zadeh  1 , Philip Kam-Tao Li  2 , Ekamol Tantisattamo  3 , Latha Kumaraswami  4 , Vassilios Liakopoulos  5 , Siu-Fai Lui  6 , Ifeoma Ulasi  7 , Sharon Andreoli  8 , Alessandro Balducci  9 , Sophie Dupuis  10 , Tess Harris  11 , Anne Hradsky  10 , Richard Knight  12 , Sajay Kumar  4 , Maggie Ng  13 , Alice Poidevin  10 , Gamal Saadi  14 , Allison Tong  15 ; World Kidney Day Steering Committee
Collaborators, Affiliations
Editorial

Living Well With Kidney Disease by Patient and Care-Partner Empowerment: Kidney Health for Everyone Everywhere

Kamyar Kalantar-Zadeh et al. Kidney Med. .

Abstract

Living with chronic kidney disease (CKD) is associated with hardships for patients and their care partners. Empowering patients and their care partners, including family members and friends involved in their care, may help minimize the burden and consequences of CKD-related symptoms to enable increased life participation. There is a need to broaden the focus on living well with kidney disease and reengagement in life, including emphasis on the patient being in control. The World Kidney Day (WKD) Joint Steering Committee has declared 2021 the year of "Living Well with Kidney Disease" in an effort to increase education about and awareness of the important goal of patient empowerment and life participation. This calls for the development and implementation of validated patient-reported outcome measures to assess and address areas of life participation in routine care. It could be supported by regulatory agencies as a metric for quality care or to support labeling claims for medicines and devices. Funding agencies could establish targeted calls for research that address the priorities of patients. Patients with kidney disease and their care partners should feel supported to live well through concerted efforts by kidney care communities, including during pandemics. In the overall wellness program for patients with kidney disease, the need for prevention should be reiterated. Early detection with prolonged course of wellness despite kidney disease, after effective secondary and tertiary prevention programs, should be promoted. WKD 2021 continues to call for increased awareness of the importance of preventive measures across populations, professionals, and policy makers, applicable to both developed and developing countries.

Keywords: care partner; health policy; low- to middle-income countries; patient empowerment.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Conceptual framework of “Living Well with Kidney Disease” based on patient centeredness and empowering patient, with a focus on effective symptom management and life participation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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