Meeting patients where they are: improving outcomes in early chronic kidney disease with tailored self-management support (the CKD-SMS study)

BACKGROUND: To achieve optimal health outcomes, people with chronic kidney disease must make changes in their everyday lives to self-manage their condition. This can be challenging, and there is a need for self-management support interventions which assist people to become successful self-managers. While interventions have been developed, the literature in this area is sparse and limited by lack of both individualisation and sound theoretical basis. The aim of this study was to implement and evaluate the Chronic Kidney Disease-Self-Management Support intervention: a theory-based, person-centred self-management intervention for people with chronic kidney disease stages 1–4. METHODS: A single-sample, pre-post study of an individualised, 12-week intervention based upon principles of social-cognitive theory and person-centred care was conducted with patients attending outpatient renal clinics in Queensland, Australia (N = 66). Data were collected at T0 (pre-intervention) and T1 (post-intervention). Primary outcomes were self-efficacy and self-management behaviour. RESULTS: There were significant, small-to-medium improvements in primary outcomes (self-efficacy: mean difference + 0.8, 95% CI 0.3–1.2, d = 0.4; self-management behaviour: mean difference + 6.2, 95% CI 4.5–7.9, d = 0.8). There were further significant improvements in secondary outcomes (blood pressure, disease-specific knowledge, physical activity, fruit and vegetable consumption, alcohol consumption, health-related quality of life, psychological distress, and communication with healthcare providers), with effect sizes ranging from negligible to large (all ps < .05). CONCLUSIONS: Social-cognitive theory shows promise as a framework for providing effective person-centred self-management support to patients within this population, and longer-term evaluation is needed. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12618000066280. Retrospectively registered 17/01/2018. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12882-018-1075-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.