Self-Care & Outcomes Among Kidney Transplant Recipients

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Kidney loss in the first 10 years following transplantation remains a significant problem despite tremendous scientific advances in treating acute rejection and immunosuppression. This problem is pressing because racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities persist in kidney survival rates causing inequities in graft outcomes. One possible explanation for this survival difference is social inequities in self-care practices of compliance and symptom management. Self-care is essential to the survival of the kidney. But the resources (e.g., financial, social support) for self-care are not equitably distributed in the population. Under the new 2001 Medicare bill (HR 4577), only kidney recipients with disabilities obtain full support for as long as the new kidney functions, but most kidney recipients do not have disabilities, so financial support remains limited. This limitation can lead to the waste of scarce kidneys because it prevents patients from sustaining their kidneys after three years. Consequently, the capacity for and practice of self-care varies by race/ethnicity and insurance status. The proposed interdisciplinary study will examine the social, cultural, and economic strategies and resources that kidney recipients mobilize to keep their kidneys healthy in the context of limited financial support from insurers. The specific aims of this study are to: 1) examine transplant recipients' health beliefs about kidney survival, compliance, and rejection; 2) investigate transplant recipients' practices of self-care and financially maintaining a kidney transplant; 3) measure the impact of recipients' health beliefs and self-care practices on graft outcomes; and 4) compare self-care practices and graft outcomes among kidney recipients with different demographic and socioeconomic backgrounds. To accomplish these goals, the proposed four-year longitudinal study will use a multi-method approach for data collection. Data will be gathered prospectively through interviews with kidney recipients every six months and through medical chart review. Identifying the sociocultural and economic processes associated with better graft survival is important for: a) preventing kidney rejection, b) devising compliance interventions, c) preparing candidates for transplant through education, d) evaluating health policies designed to prevent financial barriers to kidney transplantation, and e) eliminating disparities in long-term kidney survival rates