Educación sanitaria al paciente con enfermedad renal crónica avanzada. ¿Existe evidencia de su utilidad?

Abstract

Introduction: Chronic kidney disease has become a serious health problem for its high incidence and prevalence, significant morbidity and health care costs. Due to the seriousness of the problem, it is required an early detection of the disease and suitable treatment of the associated comorbidities. The management of the patient for his/her treatment, diet, hygienic measures etc. can prevent or reduce this complication, as result health education is fundamental.
Purpose: To know scientific production on health education usefulness by advanced chronic kidney disease patients.
Methods: It is a literature review whose search was conducted in the databases of PubMed, Scielo, Science Direct and Google Scholar. Scientific articles written in English and Spanish were included. Articles that dealt with health education programs for advanced chronic kidney disease patients in predialysis clinics were analyzed.
Results: After the analysis of the 24 selected articles, we can state that health education offers tangible benefits to the renal patient. Among the developed variableshighlighted the strong implication that health education has in choice of treatment modality and it is considered as a factor associated with survival. It is also related to a 17% reduction in the risk for hospitalizations, a planned dialysis start, reduces morbidity, increases positive biochemical parameters values and increases the confidence of the patient to deal with the management of his disease.
Conclusions: Health education is an important tool in the treatment of patients with advanced chronic kidney disease, and it must be offered in the context of a predialysis clinic that consists of a multidisciplinary team, in which nursing has an important active role.