Cargando…

Challenges to dialysis treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study of patients’ and experts’ perspectives

BACKGROUND: The global COVID-19 pandemic transformed healthcare services in ways that have impacted individual physical and psychological health. The substantial health challenges routinely faced by dialysis-dependent patients with advanced kidney disease have increased considerably during the ongoi...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Oviedo Flores, Krystell, Stamm, Tanja, Alper, Seth L., Ritschl, Valentin, Vychytil, Andreas
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10686285/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38034282
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1185411
_version_ 1785151759638855680
author Oviedo Flores, Krystell
Stamm, Tanja
Alper, Seth L.
Ritschl, Valentin
Vychytil, Andreas
author_facet Oviedo Flores, Krystell
Stamm, Tanja
Alper, Seth L.
Ritschl, Valentin
Vychytil, Andreas
author_sort Oviedo Flores, Krystell
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The global COVID-19 pandemic transformed healthcare services in ways that have impacted individual physical and psychological health. The substantial health challenges routinely faced by dialysis-dependent patients with advanced kidney disease have increased considerably during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic but remain inadequately investigated. We therefore decided to analyze and compare the perspectives of dialysis patients on their own needs and challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic with those of their professional healthcare providers through interviews with both groups. METHODS: Qualitative study of seven in-center hemodialysis patients, seven peritoneal dialysis patients, seven dialysis nurses, and seven physicians at the Medical University of Vienna between March 2020 and February 2021, involving content analysis of semi-structured interviews supported by a natural language processing technique. RESULTS: Among the main themes emerging from interviews with patients were: (1) concerns about being a ‘high-risk patient’; (2) little fear of COVID-19 as a patient on hemodialysis; (3) questions about home dialysis as a better choice than in-center dialysis. Among the main themes brought up by physicians and nurses were: (1) anxiety, sadness, and loneliness of peritoneal dialysis patients; (2) negative impact of changes in clinical routine on patients’ well-being; (3) telehealth as a new modality of care. CONCLUSION: Preventive measures against COVID-19 (e.g., use of facemasks, distancing, isolation), the introduction of telemedicine, and an increase in home dialysis have led to communication barriers and reduced face-to-face and direct physical contact between healthcare providers and patients. Physicians did not perceive the full extent of patients’ psychological burdens. Selection/modification of dialysis modality should include analysis of the patient’s support network and proactive discussion between dialysis patients and their healthcare providers about implications of the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic. Modification of clinical routine care to increase frequency of psychological evaluation should be considered in anticipation of future surges of COVID-19 or currently unforeseen pandemics.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-10686285
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-106862852023-11-30 Challenges to dialysis treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study of patients’ and experts’ perspectives Oviedo Flores, Krystell Stamm, Tanja Alper, Seth L. Ritschl, Valentin Vychytil, Andreas Front Psychol Psychology BACKGROUND: The global COVID-19 pandemic transformed healthcare services in ways that have impacted individual physical and psychological health. The substantial health challenges routinely faced by dialysis-dependent patients with advanced kidney disease have increased considerably during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic but remain inadequately investigated. We therefore decided to analyze and compare the perspectives of dialysis patients on their own needs and challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic with those of their professional healthcare providers through interviews with both groups. METHODS: Qualitative study of seven in-center hemodialysis patients, seven peritoneal dialysis patients, seven dialysis nurses, and seven physicians at the Medical University of Vienna between March 2020 and February 2021, involving content analysis of semi-structured interviews supported by a natural language processing technique. RESULTS: Among the main themes emerging from interviews with patients were: (1) concerns about being a ‘high-risk patient’; (2) little fear of COVID-19 as a patient on hemodialysis; (3) questions about home dialysis as a better choice than in-center dialysis. Among the main themes brought up by physicians and nurses were: (1) anxiety, sadness, and loneliness of peritoneal dialysis patients; (2) negative impact of changes in clinical routine on patients’ well-being; (3) telehealth as a new modality of care. CONCLUSION: Preventive measures against COVID-19 (e.g., use of facemasks, distancing, isolation), the introduction of telemedicine, and an increase in home dialysis have led to communication barriers and reduced face-to-face and direct physical contact between healthcare providers and patients. Physicians did not perceive the full extent of patients’ psychological burdens. Selection/modification of dialysis modality should include analysis of the patient’s support network and proactive discussion between dialysis patients and their healthcare providers about implications of the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic. Modification of clinical routine care to increase frequency of psychological evaluation should be considered in anticipation of future surges of COVID-19 or currently unforeseen pandemics. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-11-15 /pmc/articles/PMC10686285/ /pubmed/38034282 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1185411 Text en Copyright © 2023 Oviedo Flores, Stamm, Alper, Ritschl and Vychytil. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Oviedo Flores, Krystell
Stamm, Tanja
Alper, Seth L.
Ritschl, Valentin
Vychytil, Andreas
Challenges to dialysis treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study of patients’ and experts’ perspectives
title Challenges to dialysis treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study of patients’ and experts’ perspectives
title_full Challenges to dialysis treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study of patients’ and experts’ perspectives
title_fullStr Challenges to dialysis treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study of patients’ and experts’ perspectives
title_full_unstemmed Challenges to dialysis treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study of patients’ and experts’ perspectives
title_short Challenges to dialysis treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study of patients’ and experts’ perspectives
title_sort challenges to dialysis treatment during the covid-19 pandemic: a qualitative study of patients’ and experts’ perspectives
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10686285/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38034282
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1185411
work_keys_str_mv AT oviedofloreskrystell challengestodialysistreatmentduringthecovid19pandemicaqualitativestudyofpatientsandexpertsperspectives
AT stammtanja challengestodialysistreatmentduringthecovid19pandemicaqualitativestudyofpatientsandexpertsperspectives
AT alpersethl challengestodialysistreatmentduringthecovid19pandemicaqualitativestudyofpatientsandexpertsperspectives
AT ritschlvalentin challengestodialysistreatmentduringthecovid19pandemicaqualitativestudyofpatientsandexpertsperspectives
AT vychytilandreas challengestodialysistreatmentduringthecovid19pandemicaqualitativestudyofpatientsandexpertsperspectives