Living Well with Kidney Disease by Patient and Care-Partner Empowerment: Kidney Health for Everyone Everywhere
Living with chronic kidney disease is associated with hardships
for patients and their care-partners. Empowering patients and
their care-partners, including family members or friends involved in their care,
may help minimize the burden and consequences of CKD related symptoms
to enable life participation.
There is a need to broaden the focus on living well with kidney disease
and re-engagement in life, including an emphasis on patients being in control.
The World Kidney Day Joint Steering Committee has declared 2021 the year
of “Living Well with Kidney Disease” in an effort to increase education and awareness
on 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 labelling 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 kidney disease patients,
the need for prevention should be reiterated.
WKD 2021 continues to call for increased awareness of the importance
of preventive measures throughout populations, professionals,
and policymakers, applicable to both developed and developing countries.
Nephrol Open J. 2021; 6(1): e1-e6. doi: 10.17140/NPOJ-6-e012
