Self-Efficacy and Self-Care Management Outcome of Chronic Renal Failure Patients

Paolo Angelo Gica Balaga


Patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) often fail to comply with their diet therapy, as well as hemodialysis and medications, caused by low perceived self-efficacy which undermines the effectiveness of self-care. This paper looked into self-efficacy and self-care management outcome of patients with CRF utilizing Bandura’s Self-Efficacy Theory as basis for self-care management guidelines. Respondents included 50 randomly chosen CRF patients acquiring hemodialysis in Cebu City who answered the researcher-made questionnaire. Exploring patient’s self-efficacy, the researcher observed that many respondents claimed compliance to diet, hemodialysis treatment and medications and showed hypoalbuminemia and hypophosphatemia throughout the year. Diet adherence was positively correlated to albumin levels, had inverse relationship to interdialytic weight gain levels and had no significant correlation to preblood urea nitrogen levels. Kt/V and urea reduction ratio levels possessed no significant correlation to compliance with hemodialysis. Meanwhile, compliance with medications had direct bearing on hemoglobin and hematocrit levels and had inverse relationship to phosphorus levels. In conclusion, self-efficacy had bearing on self-care management outcome of CRF patients. Health professionals need to constantly evaluate the patient’s self-efficacy in compliance to improve prognosis and quality of life of CRF patients.

 

Keywords - chronic renal failure, self-efficacy, self-care management outcome, hemodialysis