NIV Congres

Introduction Living donor kidney transplantation (LDKT) is regarded as the optimal treatment option for patients with end-stage renal disease. The aim of this study was to investigate if knowledge about dialysis, transplantation and living donation differentiates between patients with and without a living donor at their first visit to the outpatient pre-transplantation clinic.

Methods We measured the knowledge regarding kidney diseases and renal replacement therapies of 78 kidney patients who were newly referred to the outpatient pre-transplantation clinic. All were asked to fill in the validated Rotterdam Renal Replacement Knowledge-Test (RRK-T) which is available in 9 languages. The R3K-T contains two subscales: ‘Dialysis and Transplantation’ (10 items) and ‘Living Donation’ (11 items). After the first visit all patients were provided with several educational materials: hospital education. The patients without a living donor were also asked to complete out the questionnaire again during a later visit to the outpatient clinic.

Results At the first visit 49/78 patients had a living donor. This group scored significantly higher on the total scale of the R3K-T (p=0.002) and on the two subscales (p=0.012 and p=0.005) compared the group of patients without a living donor. When the R3K-T was administered again to patients without a living donor after the hospital education, they had the same score on overall knowledge (p=0.104) and the same scores on both subscales (p=0.134 and p=0.190) as on the first examination.

Discussion Greater knowledge of dialysis and renal replacement therapies appears to differentiate between patients with and without a living donor during their first visit to the outpatient pre-transplantation clinic. Moreover, those without a living donor do not appear to benefit in terms of knowledge from the standard educational efforts. Patients without a living donor may benefit from a more interactive and tailored educational programme in addition to the current education.