THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SELF-EFFICACY PSYCHOEDUCATIONAL INTERVENTION IN ENHANCING OUTCOMES OF PATIENTS UNDERGOING HAEMODIALYSIS DUE TO END STAGE RENAL DISEASE

Background Patients with ESRD have been found to have low self-efficacy in self-care, high psychological distress, poor treatment adherence and low HRQoL. Although psycho-educational intervention has been widely used in managing chronic conditions, studies using such intervention on patients with ESRD and haemodialysis using randomised controlled trial design are very limited. Aim To develop a self-efficacy psycho-educational program and examine its effectiveness on outcomes (self-efficacy, psychological wellbeing, treatment adherence, and quality of life) of patients with end stage renal disease who undergo haemodialysis in Singapore. Methods A randomised controlled, two-group pre-test and repeated post-tests design is adopted. Patients with end stage renal disease undergoing haemodialysis, who are above 21 years old and attend to renal clinics in one of tertiary hospitals in Singapore, were recruited. Participants in the control group receive routine care. Participants in the intervention group receive a self-efficacy psycho-educational intervention in addition to the routine care. Instruments of Dialysis Specific Self- efficacy Scale, Kidney Disease Quality of Life- Short Form, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Renal Adherence Attitudes Questionnaire and Renal Adherence Behaviour Questionnaire are used to collect data at baseline, 1 month and 3 months’ follow ups after the intervention. Data collection is ongoing. Preliminary data will be analysed using IBM SPSS for Windows Version 22.0. Conclusion This study will provide evidence on the effects of the self-efficacy psycho-educational program in enhancing patients’ self-efficacy in self-care behaviour and therefore improving their psychological wellbeing, treatment adherence and quality of life. This study will provide information to develop clinical guidelines to improve patients’ disease self-management and to enhance health-related outcomes. Hopefully it will help reducing disease burden.