Evaluation of knowledge and attitudes towards kidney transplantation in patients undergoing hemodialysis at Muhimbili National Hospital, Tanzania.

Abstract

Renal replacement therapy (RRT) is the treatment of choice for patients with End Stage Renal disease (ESRD), RRT include dialysis and kidney transplantation. Some sub-Saharan African countries including Tanzania have improved nephrology services dialysis and kidney transplant. This study aimed to assess knowledge, attitude and practices towards kidney transplantation among patients undergoing dialysis at Muhimbili National Hospital. This was a hospital based cross-sectional study that was conducted at Muhimbili National Hospital. A total of 190 patients were interviewed, majority were males 133(70%) with the age range of 18-80 years. Most patients 183(96.35%) were aware of Kidney transplantation the main source of information 175(95.6%) being hospital with 159 (86.9%) patients being aware of rules guiding kidney transplantation and 166 (90.7%) were aware of lifelong medication use after kidney transplantation. Knowledge on transplant was noted in 115(62.8%) with all of them being willing to receive kidney from blood related relatives. Majority 188 (64.5%) patients were not sure whether live kidney donation was better than deceased kidney donation. Better knowledge may ultimately translate into the act of donation. Effective measures should be taken to educate people with relevant information with the involvement of media, doctors and religious scholars. Large proportion considers Kidney Transplant positively but it limited by shortage of donors.

Willingness of Patients With End-Stage Renal Disease to Accept a Kidney Transplant and Related Factors

“…The mean KT attitude score in this study was 0.39 (mean score range: −2 to 2), indicating the participants generally held neutral or slightly positive attitudes toward KTs. This finding is similar to those of several previous studies (Ilori et al, 2015; Mzee et al, 2020). In this study, KT attitude scores were positively correlated with KT willingness scores, and attitudes were identified as the most important factor for predicting KT willingness.…”

“…The mean KT knowledge score in this study of 6.14 (out of 12) indicates that participants had about 50% knowledge of KT, which is similar to the findings of previous studies (Alansari et al, 2017; Ilori et al, 2015; Mzee et al, 2020). In addition, participants' KT knowledge and willingness scores were significantly and positively correlated, supporting that KT knowledge relates positively to KT willingness.…”

“…The above studies demonstrate a general lack of knowledge regarding KT among patients receiving dialysis. Conversely, one study found 77% of patients had knowledge of KT (Kalender et al, 2015), whereas other studies have revealed positive attitudes toward KT among a majority of participants (Boima et al, 2021;Mzee et al, 2020). However, a systematic literature review by Navaneethan and Singh (2006) identified generally negative attitudes toward KT among African American patients.…”

“…Also, Alansari et al (2017) found 61% of the hemodialysis patient participants had "poor" or "very poor" knowledge of KT. Similarly, Boima et al (2021) reported that approximately 90% of participants rated their knowledge of KT as "below average" or "average," and Mzee et al (2020) found only 62.8% of participants had any awareness of KT. The above studies demonstrate a general lack of knowledge regarding KT among patients receiving dialysis.…”

“…For patients with chronic kidney disease, rates of KT willingness were found to be 54% in the United States (Ilori et al, 2015), 69% in India (Kaur et al, 2019), and 67% in Ghana (Boima et al, 2021). For hemodialysis patients, rates of KT willingness were found to be 69% in Saudi Arabia (Alansari et al, 2017), 63% in Turkey (Kalender et al, 2015), 63% in Tanzania (Mzee et al, 2020), 60% in Pakistan (Ali et al, 2023), 73.3% in Morocco (Kabbali et al, 2014), and 35%-46% in China (Qiao et al, 2016;Tan et al, 2017). For patients with ESRD, rates of KT willingness were found to be 66.7% in Nigeria (Takure et al, 2016) and 16% in Taiwan (Chang, 2013).…”