EFFECTS OF PATIENTS' ACTIVATION ON THEIR HEALTH MANAGEMENT AND ITS AFFECTING FACTORS IN THE PATIENTS UNDERGOING HEMODIALYSIS IN THE HEMODIALYSIS UNIT OF IMAM REZA (AS) HOSPITAL IN TABRIZ, IRAN

One of the concepts that has been recently emphasized in the care of chronic diseases such as chronic kidney disease (CKD) is the activity of patient in his/her health management, which is called patient activation. Knowing the level of patient activation can help physicians and nurses implementing high quality care and proper patient education. The aim of this study was to evaluate the patients' activation and the factors affecting it in patients undergoing hemodialysis.

In this cross-sectional study, a total of 180 patients undergoing hemodialysis were selected from the largest hemodialysis center in Iran by simple random sampling. Data collection was performed using demographic information and patient activation measure (PAM). Data were analyzed by SPSS software ver. 26 using ANOVA, t-test, and Pearson correlation coefficient tests.

The results showed that the mean activation score for hemodialysis patients was 56.25±16.77 and most of them were in level 1 of activation. The analysis showed that the mean activation score was statistically significant in terms of marital status, place of living, educational level, history of kidney transplantation, income, and age of the patients (P values were under 0.05 for all).

In general, the activation rate of hemodialysis patients was moderate and a limited number of samples were in level 4 of patient activation. Therefore, it is suggested that the activation level of patients should be assessed in early stages of diagnosis of CKD, and then the patients' care should be provided in accordance with the activation level of individuals and based on person-centered approaches.