Abstract

HyangJin Ryu, Hyun Ju Jeon, Hui-Kyoung Sun, Kum Hyun Han, Chun Gyung Whang, and Sang Youb Han

Dietary education is important for improving the status of hemodialysis (HD) patients; however, general dietary instructions are not sufficient to reach dietary goals. To determine the effectiveness of repeated education in maintenance HD patients, we prospectively compared pre- and post-education data on the level of diet-related knowledge, role behavior, and laboratory results. Thirty HD patients were matched with a specific nurse and offered repeated individualized dietary information on sodium, potassium, phosphorus, protein, and water consumption every week for 3 months. Educational compliance was evaluated by questionnaires. The diet knowledge score increased from 4.26±0.84 to 4.72±1.43 out of 10 (p5.5 mEq/L) significantly decreased from 26.7±0.31% to 13.9±0.20% on a similar dosage of potassium-lowering medicine (p=0.035). There were no significant changes in the rates of hyperphosphatemia (>5.5 mg/dL) and Ca*P product (>55 mg2/dL2) although requirement for phosphate binders decreased. Repeated education is effective in terms of improving hemodialysis patients’ dietary compliance and their physiological results