Abstract
Background
Patients who actively participate in the clinical discussion of their condition manage the disease better, follow therapies more easily and are more satisfied with the outcome of medical procedures. At the same time, kidney transplantation requires strict adherence to immunosuppressive therapy. In the present study we studied patients' perception of the quality of information received from doctors and nurses during outpatient follow-up. The aim of this project is to correlate the collected data with the evaluation of therapeutic adherence.
Methods
In the study, we collected a retrospective observational cohort of 112 kidney transplant patients derived from a single center. The data were obtained between February 2019 and February 2020. Non-adherence was assessed using a patient self-reporting scale: 'the Basel Assessment of Adherence with Immunosuppressive Medication Scale' (BAASIS). In addition, non-adherence was classified based on the variability of serum levels of immunosuppressant drugs in the past 12 months. The perception of the health information received was assessed using the 'Health Services OutPatient Experience questionnaire' (HSOPE).
Results
The data collected from the BAASIS questionnaire suggest poor therapeutic adherence in over 20% of the population analyzed. The data collected from the HSOPE questionnaire suggest a request from the patient to be more involved in the therapeutic decisions and to have greater attention regarding the doubts and fears that the treatment path can cause. The data suggest a relationship between high BAASIS questionnaire scores and high variability coefficient of immunosuppressant drugs. Furthermore, there is a relationship between the low scores of the HSOPE questionnaire and the high variability coefficient of immunosuppressant drugs.
Conclusions
The data collected in this study suggest a relationship between the sense of dissatisfaction with the health information received and poor adherence to therapy. The improvement of the information conveyed to the patient and his greater involvement in the therapeutic project could have a significant effect in the improvement of therapeutic adherence.
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