Patients' Experiences and Perspectives of Telehealth Coaching with a Dietitian to Improve Diet Quality in Chronic Kidney Disease: A Qualitative Interview Study

Background

Dietary behavior change interventions for the self-management of chronic kidney disease (CKD) have the potential to slow disease progression and reduce metabolic complications. Telehealth-delivered dietary interventions may assist in the self-management of CKD, although their acceptability by patients is unknown.

Objective

This study aims to describe the acceptability and experiences of a telehealth coaching intervention that utilized telephone calls and tailored text messages to improve diet quality in patients with stage 3 to 4 CKD.

Design

Semistructured interview study of adults with CKD.

Participants/setting

Adults with stage 3 to 4 CKD (n=21) aged 28 to 78 (mean 62) years, who completed a 12-week telehealth-delivered dietary intervention in Queensland, Australia, were interviewed from March to July 2017.

Data analysis

Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed thematically.

Results

Five themes were identified: valuing relationships (receiving tangible and perceptible support, building trust and rapport remotely, motivated by accountability, readily responding to a personalized approach, reassured by health professional expertise); appreciating convenience (integrating easily into lifestyle, talking comfortably in a familiar environment, minimizing travel and wait time burden); empowered with actionable knowledge (comprehending diet-disease mechanisms, practical problem solving for sustainable dietary behavior); increasing diet consciousness (learning from recurrent feedback, prompted by reiteration of messages); making sense of complexity (contextualizing and prioritizing comorbidities, gaining confidence to make dietary decisions, setting and achieving realistic goals).

Conclusions

Among adults with stage 3 to 4 CKD, individualized telehealth coaching for improving diet quality was convenient for patients, and they felt supported and empowered to navigate recommendations and prioritize dietary behavior changes. Telehealth-delivered dietary interventions appear to be well accepted by patients as a way of providing regular, tailored contact with a health professional to support dietary management in CKD.