Date of Conferral

2017

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Public Health

Advisor

Vasileios Margaritis

Abstract

Undocumented end stage renal disease (ESRD) patients in the United States only have access to emergency dialysis. To compensate for the lack of regular dialysis these patients must follow strict renal dietary restrictions. However, nutrition counseling by a dietitian is not part of the renal management of patients on emergency dialysis. The purpose of this quantitative quasi-experimental treatment-control study was to assess how the application of nutritional counseling that is both culturally and linguistically competent affects dialysis frequency and biochemical lab values such as serum potassium, phosphorus, and vitamin D of patients in emergency dialysis. The study was grounded on the social cognitive theory and consisted of a secondary data analysis of information collected from electronic medical records. The sample size consisted of 96 emergency dialysis patients, 51 from the intervention group, and 45 from the control group. Results from Quade's test revealed there is statistically significant difference in serum levels of phosphorus [F(1,94) = 9.616, p = 0.003] and levels of Vitamin D [F(1,94) = 51.411, p = .000] between the intervention and control groups, controlling for age, gender, and time on dialysis. These findings suggest the implementation of nutrition counseling that is both culturally and linguistically competent can improve phosphorous and vitamin D levels among emergency dialysis patients. The potential social change implication of this study is that its findings may serve to assist health care professionals to design and implement interventions to improve the health status of emergency dialysis patients and reduce their impact on the public health system.

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