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      The experiences of close persons caring for people with chronic kidney disease stage 5 on conservative kidney management: Contested discourses of ageing

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          Abstract

          Chronic kidney disease stage 5 is a global health challenge in the context of population ageing across the world. The range of treatment options available to patients at all ages has increased and includes transplantation and dialysis. However, these options are often seen as inappropriate for older frailer patients who are now offered the option of conservative kidney management, which is presented as a non-invasive alternative to dialysis, involving symptom management and addressing psychosocial needs. In this study, we conducted qualitative interviews with 26 close persons caring for someone with chronic kidney disease stage 5 in the United Kingdom to investigate how conservative kidney management interacted with implicit ideas of ageing, in both the experience of conservative kidney management and the understanding of the prognosis and future care of the kidney disease. Our findings highlighted participant confusion about the nature of conservative kidney management, which stems from an initial lack of clarity about how conservative kidney management differed from conventional treatments for chronic kidney disease stage 5. In particular, some respondents were not aware of the implicit palliative nature of the intervention or indeed the inevitable end-of-life issues. Although these findings can be situated within the context of communication failure, we would further argue that they also bring to the surface tensions in the discourses surrounding ageing and old age, drawing on the use of a ‘natural’ and a ‘normal’ paradigm of ageing. In the context of chronic kidney disease stage 5, more patients are being dialysed at older ages, but conservative kidney management is being advanced as a better option than dialysis in terms of quality of life and experience. However, in doing so, conservative kidney management implicitly draws on a notion of older age that echoes natural ageing rather than advocate a more interventionist approach. The role of discourses of ageing in the provision of treatments for conservative kidney management has not previously been acknowledged, and this article addresses this gap.

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          Chronic kidney disease as a global public health problem: approaches and initiatives - a position statement from Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes.

          Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is increasingly recognized as a global public health problem. There is now convincing evidence that CKD can be detected using simple laboratory tests, and that treatment can prevent or delay complications of decreased kidney function, slow the progression of kidney disease, and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Translating these advances to simple and applicable public health measures must be adopted as a goal worldwide. Understanding the relationship between CKD and other chronic diseases is important to developing a public health policy to improve outcomes. The 2004 Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) Controversies Conference on 'Definition and Classification of Chronic Kidney Disease' represented an important endorsement of the Kidney Disease Outcome Quality Initiative definition and classification of CKD by the international community. The 2006 KDIGO Controversies Conference on CKD was convened to consider six major topics: (1) CKD classification, (2) CKD screening and surveillance, (3) public policy for CKD, (4) CVD and CVD risk factors as risk factors for development and progression of CKD, (5) association of CKD with chronic infections, and (6) association of CKD with cancer. This report contains the recommendations from the meeting. It has been reviewed by the conference participants and approved as position statement by the KDIGO Board of Directors. KDIGO will work in collaboration with international and national public health organizations to facilitate implementation of these recommendations.
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            The views of patients and carers in treatment decision making for chronic kidney disease: systematic review and thematic synthesis of qualitative studies

            Objective To synthesise the views of patients and carers in decision making regarding treatment for chronic kidney disease, and to determine which factors influence those decisions. Design Systematic review of qualitative studies of decision making and choice for dialysis, transplantation, or palliative care, and thematic synthesis of qualitative studies. Data sources Medline, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Embase, social work abstracts, and digital theses (database inception to week 3 October 2008) to identify literature using qualitative methods (focus groups, interviews, or case studies). Review methods Thematic synthesis involved line by line coding of the findings of the primary studies and development of descriptive and analytical themes. Results 18 studies that reported the experiences of 375 patients and 87 carers were included. 14 studies focused on preferences for dialysis modality, three on transplantation, and one on palliative management. Four major themes were identified as being central to treatment choices: confronting mortality (choosing life or death, being a burden, living in limbo), lack of choice (medical decision, lack of information, constraints on resources), gaining knowledge of options (peer influence, timing of information), and weighing alternatives (maintaining lifestyle, family influences, maintaining the status quo). Conclusions The experiences of other patients greatly influenced the decision making of patients and carers. The problematic timing of information about treatment options and synchronous creation of vascular access seemed to predetermine haemodialysis and inhibit choice of other treatments, including palliative care. A preference to maintain the status quo may explain why patients often remain on their initial therapy.
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              Dialysis or not? A comparative survival study of patients over 75 years with chronic kidney disease stage 5.

              The number of elderly patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) stage 5 is steadily increasing. Evidence is needed to inform decision-making for or against dialysis, especially in those patients with multiple comorbid conditions for whom dialysis may not increase survival. We therefore compared survival of elderly patients with CKD stage 5, managed either with dialysis or conservatively (without dialysis), after the management decision had been made, and explored which of several key variables were independently associated with survival. A retrospective analysis of the survival of all over 75 years with CKD stage 5 attending dedicated multidisciplinary pre-dialysis care clinics (n=129) was performed. Demographic and comorbidity data were collected on all patients. Survival was defined as the time from estimated GFR<15 ml/min to either death or study endpoint. One- and two-year survival rates were 84% and 76% in the dialysis group (n=52) and 68% and 47% in the conservative group (n=77), respectively, with significantly different cumulative survival (log rank 13.6, P<0.001). However, this survival advantage was lost in those patients with high comorbidity scores, especially when the comorbidity included ischaemic heart disease. In CKD stage 5 patients over 75 years, who receive specialist nephrological care early, and who follow a planned management pathway, the survival advantage of dialysis is substantially reduced by comorbidity and ischaemic heart disease in particular. Comorbidity should be a major consideration when advising elderly patients for or against dialysis.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                Health (London)
                Health (London)
                HEA
                sphea
                Health (London, England : 1997)
                SAGE Publications (Sage UK: London, England )
                1363-4593
                1461-7196
                November 2014
                November 2014
                : 18
                : 6
                : 613-630
                Affiliations
                [1-1363459314524805]University College London, UK
                [2-1363459314524805]Imperial College London, UK
                [3-1363459314524805]University College London, UK
                [4-1363459314524805]Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust, UK
                [5-1363459314524805]University College London, UK
                Author notes
                [*]Joe Low, Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Unit, Division of Psychiatry, University College London, 67-73 Riding House Street, London W1W 7EP, UK. Email: joseph.low@ 123456ucl.ac.uk
                Article
                10.1177_1363459314524805
                10.1177/1363459314524805
                4230846
                24695386
                0556bb82-7a89-41e9-b003-7e8c5e53d550
                © The Author(s) 2014

                This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License ( http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page ( http://www.uk.sagepub.com/aboutus/openaccess.htm)

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                Medicine
                chronic kidney disease,conservative kidney management,informal care,normal ageing,qualitative

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