Abstract

The high burden of kidney disease, global disparities in kidney care and poor outcomes of kidney failure bring a concomitant growing burden to persons affected, their families and caregivers and the community at large. Health literacy is the degree to which persons and organizations have or equitably enable individuals to have the ability to find, understand and use information and services to make informed health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others. Rather than viewing health literacy as a patient deficit, improving health literacy largely rests with healthcare providers communicating and educating effectively in codesigned partnership with those with kidney disease. For kidney policymakers, health literacy provides the imperative to shift organizations to a culture that places the person at the center of healthcare. The growing capability of and access to technology provides new opportunities to enhance education and awareness of kidney disease for all stakeholders. Advances in telecommunication, including social media platforms, can be leveraged to enhance persons’ and providers’ education. The World Kidney Day declares 2022 as the year of ‘Kidney Health for All’ to promote global teamwork in advancing strategies in bridging the gap in kidney health education and literacy. Kidney organizations should work toward shifting the patient-deficit health literacy narrative to that of being the responsibility of healthcare providers and health policymakers. By engaging in and supporting kidney health–centered policymaking, community health planning and health literacy approaches for all, the kidney communities strive to prevent kidney diseases and enable living well with kidney disease.

Details

Title
Kidney health for all: bridging the gap in kidney health education and literacy
Author
Langham, Robyn G 1 ; Kalantar-Zadeh, Kamyar 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Bonner, Ann 3 ; Balducci, Alessandro 4 ; Li-Li, Hsiao 5 ; Kumaraswami, Latha A 6 ; Laffin, Paul 7 ; Liakopoulos, Vassilios 8   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Saadi, Gamal 9 ; Tantisattamo, Ekamol 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Ulasi, Ifeoma 10 ; Siu-Fai Lui 11 

 Department of Medicine, St. Vincent's Hospital, University of Melbourne , Melbourne, Victoria , Australia 
 Division of Nephrology, Hypertension and Kidney Transplantation, Department of Medicine, University of California Irvine School of Medicine , Orange, CA , USA 
 School of Nursing and Midwifery, Griffith University , Southport, Queensland , Australia 
 Italian Kidney Foundation , Rome , Italy 
 Brigham and Women's Hospital, Renal Division, Department of Medicine , Boston, MA , USA 
 Tamilnad Kidney Research (TANKER) Foundation, International Federation of Kidney Foundations–World Kidney Alliance , Chennai , India 
 International Society of Nephrology , Brussels , Belgium 
 Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, 1st Department of Internal Medicine, AHEPA Hospital, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki , Thessaloniki , Greece 
 Nephrology Unit, Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University , Giza , Egypt 
10  Renal Unit, Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria , Ituku-Ozalla, Enugu , Nigeria 
11  International Federation of Kidney Foundations–World Kidney Alliance, Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care, Chinese University of Hong Kong , Hong Kong , China 
Pages
603-610
Publication year
2022
Publication date
Apr 2022
Publisher
Oxford University Press
ISSN
20488505
e-ISSN
20488513
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
3169604154
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the ERA. This work is published under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.