Chronic conditions are health challenges that need consistent management over a period; sometimes it could be many years. Chronic kidney disease is experienced when the functioning of the kidney gradually declines in an individual. If chronic kidney disease is not checked and contained by careful management, it could amount into kidney failure and worsen to a point that a kidney transplant or kidney dialysis would be the only options. The disease is very risky since kidneys are very significant in an individual’s body as they have the function of filtering out the wastes from the blood, which are expelled through urine (Webster, Nagler, Morton, & Masson, 2017; Hill, Fatoba, Oke, Hirst, O’Callaghan, Lasserson, & Hobbs, 2016 ). Thus, a critical level of this disease may cause an accumulation of wastes in the body, which can lead to serious consequences as a result. Additionally, chronic kidney disease displays few symptoms at its early stages of development, making it challenging to diagnosis at that stage. In most cases, the disease could possibly be diagnosed when it has reached its critical stage when the kid functions are greatly deteriorated.
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has become a worldwide epidemic causing a steady decline in kidney functioning. It is characterized into five stages based on the glomerular filtration levels and many processes or factors, particularly our lifestyle, determine the development through these levels. Patients that have stage 5 CKD (final stage) must always receive a kidney transplant, peritoneal dialysis or haemodialysis for them to live (Webster et al., 2017). According to Collins, Foley, Gilbertson, and Chen (2015) , several patients go through either haemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis since in most cases there are no kidneys available for transplant. Murphy, McCulloh, Banerjee, Bragg-Gresham, Eberhardt, and Hsu (2016) indicate that about 50 percent of dialysis patients in the United States undertake some kind of peritoneal dialysis. The two popular treatment methods for CKD (namely haemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis) have similar central functions. They eliminate metabolic wastes and extra fluids, and regulate fluid and electrolyte stability – predominantly the purposes the kidneys are unable to deliver.
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The number of people with CKD and end-stage renal disease is recognizably heightening globally, with poor results and increased costs. Cardiovascular diseases are closely linked to CKD and end-stage renal disease, which is also known to cause morbidity and mortality among patients (Murphy et al., 2016). The prevalence of left ventricular hypertrophy, congestive heart failure, vascular calcification, associated coronary artery disease, and atrial fibrillation is heightened in patients with CKD (Webster et al., 2017). The risk factors for the kidney disease are diabetes, obesity, heart diseases, high blood pressure and having a family history of CKD.
CKD is presently three times increased for African Americans, Hispanics, Pacific Islanders, and American Indians. African Americans have a three times probability than Whites, and Hispanics are about 1.5 times more vulnerable to have end-stage renal disease than non-Hispanics (Murphy et al., 2016). The kidneys can be damaged by either a pathogen or some kind of injury causing this CKD. Hill and colleagues express that 30 million American adults have CKD and many millions of Americans are susceptible to the disease. Simply put, one in every adult is projected to be having the CKD. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 15 percent of the US adult population is affected by CKD. There is no barrier to contracting CKD based on age. Nonetheless, 96 percent of those that possess early kidney disease of stages 1 and 2 have no knowledge that they have the disease CKD (Collins et al., 2015). Those patients that have an acute level of deteriorated kidney function (at stage 4) and not in dialysis because they do not know that they have the disease are at 48 percent.
About 680,000 Americans have an irreversible renal disease (or kidney failure) and require immediate dialysis or a kidney transplant to live. Above 475,000 with end-stage, renal disease patients receive dialysis at least thrice every week to do the function that the kidney has failed to do (Murphy et al., 2016). About 100,000 Americans are set to receive kidney transplant presently. Every year, Medicare uses 87,000 dollars for each dialysis patient and 32,500 dollars for each transplant patient (Webster et al., 2017). Health promotion for patients with CKD is the desired objective in performing a dialysis treatment. Attaining the highest level of functioning does not just enhance the life of the patient, but it is also a fulfilling experience for the health practitioner who appreciates the positive feedback on the treatment (Collins et al., 2015). The therapeutic environment is created by better communication, cultivating positive attitudes on both sides and patients being actively engaged in their treatment process.
Central to attaining health is sufficient dialysis, regulation of anemia, improved nutrition, and consideration of comorbid conditions. The Five Es Life Options model of rehabilitation is the perfect design for health promotion (Murphy et al., 2016). The Five Es include encouragement, evaluation, education, exercise, and employment. Encouraging entails nurturing positive attitude and expectations of every patient. Evaluation is personalized planning and continuous monitoring of progress. Education is the awareness of the patient on the need to participate and be responsible (Collins et al., 2015). Exercise enhances the physical potential and wellbeing (while on dialysis or off from it). Employment is recommended on those of working age and potential.
In terms of prevention, early detection is the most appropriate approach to consider in dealing with this condition. There are tests available for detecting CKD that are not complex or expensive and quick to do including a urine test, the albumin-creatinine ratio (ACR), which estimates the level of protein (albumin) in the urine (Murphy et al., 2016). Normally, injured kidneys leak protein into the urine when the protein is supposed to remain in the bloodstream. A blood test (creatinine) can also be done to assess someone’s glomerular filtration rate (GFR) (Collins et al., 2015). This test will reveal how effective the kidneys are functioning to eliminate wastes from the blood system. In fact, a blood test is the best manner to measure kidney function.
In conclusion, early detection is critical while addressing the CKD. When CKD is detected early enough, the patients can be treated and the condition will be prevented from reaching the advanced stage. People, especially the vulnerable population should be responsible to do frequent checks, urine test or blood tests because of the few symptoms of CKD. Much more, it is expensive to manage the end-stage of CKD compared to the amount that could have been spent in testing and treating the condition at the beginning stage.
References
Collins, A. J., Foley, R. N., Gilbertson, D. T., & Chen, S. C. (2015). United States Renal Data System public health surveillance of chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease. Kidney international supplements , 5 (1), 2-7.
Hill, N. R., Fatoba, S. T., Oke, J. L., Hirst, J. A., O’Callaghan, C. A., Lasserson, D. S., & Hobbs, F. R. (2016). Global prevalence of chronic kidney disease–a systematic review and meta-analysis. PloS one , 11 (7), e0158765.
Murphy, D., McCulloch, C. E., Lin, F., Banerjee, T., Bragg-Gresham, J. L., Eberhardt, M. S., & Hsu, C. Y. (2016). Trends in prevalence of chronic kidney disease in the United States. Annals of internal medicine , 165 (7), 473-481.
Webster, A. C., Nagler, E. V., Morton, R. L., & Masson, P. (2017). Chronic kidney disease. The Lancet , 389 (10075), 1238-1252.
