Advisory Committee Chair
Retta Evans
Advisory Committee Members
Brenda Bertrand
Orlando M Gutierrez
Dana V Rizk
Scott Snyder
Document Type
Dissertation
Date of Award
2023
Degree Name by School
Doctor of Education (EdD) School of Education
Abstract
Background: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a growing health concern that is related to both short and long-term health consequences. AKI disproportionately impacts hospitalized patients who often experience competing health conditions that overrides knowledge and awareness concerning AKI diagnosis. Therefore, attending AKI follow-up care after hospital discharge may help increase knowledge and awareness as well as mitigate some of the poor health outcomes associated with AKI. However, AKI follow-up is low among this vulnerable population. Methods: To address this problem, a mixed-methods study was conducted to examine various patient factors influencing AKI follow-up and to explore the illness beliefs of adults who experience AKI and attended an outpatient AKI follow-up clinic for care. Participants were recruited from an original cohort of an observational study examining the outcomes of AKI 12-months after diagnosis. Results: Findings showed that common patient factors influencing outpatient follow-up among other patient groups (i.e. age, sex, race, education, travel distance, marital and insurance status, and comorbidities) are not related to AKI survivors. Survivors experienced fear and uncertainty when diagnosed with AKI. Most held inaccurate beliefs related to the timeline, consequences, and controllability of AKI. For some, however, attending the clinic help manage these fears by gaining greater knowledge and awareness of kidney functioning and AKI management. Conclusion: This study shows that AKI follow-up care can have a positive impact on survivors’ doubts and fears by enhancing knowledge and awareness, and serves as an opportunity for clearing up misconceptions related to AKI. Future research is needed to explore the beliefs about AKI among survivors who were schedule but did not attend outpatient clinic to confirm these findings or to determine if findings differ among this group.
Recommended Citation
Mitchell, Ciara, "Understanding Patient Factors Influencing Outpatient Follow-Up Among Adult Survivors of Acute Kidney Injury: A Mixed Methods Study" (2023). All ETDs from UAB. 29.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/29