Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease
HCS 490
July 1, 2013

Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease
There are so many people across the nation who do not know about Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) or yet alone, what chronic means. According to Vorvick (2013), “Chronic refers to something that continues over a long period of time.” This means that a person who is diagnosed with CKD has probably had kidney damage that occurred over a period of time and they do not know about it until the disease surfaces more than before. Chronic Kidney Disease is a serious health condition that is life or death. Having the knowledge of the demographics is for this illness will allow a person to know what population is targeted, if changes in the demographics of the population will affect health care, and if the population within the demographics could address the challenges of decreasing patients with CKD.
Demographics
There is not a specific location that a person is more susceptible to being diagnosed with CKD, but there are specific groups of people who are at higher risk of possibly being diagnosed with CKD. The population that is known for losing function in their kidneys are mostly those people who are elderly, but CKD can be found in people of all ages as well. According to The National Kidney Foundation (2013), people who “have diabetes, high blood pressure, a family history of chronic kidney disease, are older, and belong to a population that has a high rate of diabetes or high blood pressure, such as African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian, Pacific Islanders, and American Indians.” Changing the demographics of people who are diagnosed with CKD would mean that a lot of people would have to monitor their blood pressure and be sure to not intake a lot of sodium from the food that they eat. Once they do that, the demographics will change immediately and less people probably would be diagnosed with CKD. According to Elliot (2012), “Advancements in technology, vaccinations, drugs, and health literacy can be attributed in older adults living longer and healthier lives.” With that said, the Baby Boomers quality of life could more than likely improve and they would be able to see their fifth and sixth decade of life. These changes will effect health care demographically because their life will be extended only if they follow the diet that he or she is on and take medications as prescribed to them.
Challenges
One key health-related challenges could be an increase in prescription for adults who are doing dialysis for “prolonged survival” (Bapat et al, 2008). The elderly nephrology patients who are in the last couple of stages of CKD are the ones who are going to be on either Hemodialysis or Peritoneal dialysis. Either way, both types of dialysis require a prescription for exchanges. If a patient is already in the latter stages of CKD, he or she is known to have an increase in health care costs because they will be having treatments like dialysis exchanges done. Dialysis equipment and prescriptions are not affordable to a person with this type of disease.
Costs
A wellness program for CKD could possibly affect the cost of the demographic of people who are diagnosed with CKD. Most CKD patients would probably join a non-profit organization to lead a healthier life in order to prevent kidney disease because they learned about the organization from a loved one or friend. Since The National Kidney Foundation is open to everyone, there is valuable information for people to find out what he or she can do in order to prevent kidney disease from occurring, or prevent their kidneys from failing even further at no cost!
Marketing
The demographics tells a person in the health care industry which focuses on kidney disease would want to help those who have kidney disease in their family line to be able to have their kidney assessed so that they know if there is anything that would lead to kidney disease. Usually, The National Kidney Foundation has teams that also is made up of volunteers to help reach out to communities at local events such as festivals or even fairs. The people who are in charge of the booth provide a free kidney screening for the community or those who are attending the festival or fair and provide pamphlets to the community to learn about why they need to preserve their fully functioning kidneys before they start failing.
Addressing Challenges An individual patient could address these challenges by stating how CKD has affected him or her personally. The patient could even speak about how the cost of treatment of dialysis has played into their lives when it comes to money and payments. The community can ask their member’s for volunteers to help The National Kidney Foundation run the booth at the same time the health professionals are doing the kidney assessment. At the same time, the society as a whole could possibly educate the people of what could happen to a person if he or she begins to lose their kidney function. Information about how heart disease relates to people with CKD would be very important information that needs to be put out to society (National Kidney Foundation, 2013).
Conclusion
Just like any chronic disease, it is important for people across the nation to learn about what he or she can do to prevent being diagnosed with a chronic disease such as Chronic Kidney Disease. Technically, people should be reading up on how a chronic illness could affect his or her life, however, with how busy people are today, people think if they are healthy at their last doctor’s appointment, they do not need to read information on how to prevent a particular chronic disease. If CKD is diagnosed since a patient’s last doctor’s visit which indicated that there were no issues with his or her kidneys, the patient is usually given information about the disease. As mentioned earlier, a majority of the Baby Boomers are the ones who are more likely to be diagnosed with CKD because of their age. At that point, the family members could learn more about the disease and do what they can to prevent their kidneys from failing. By obtaining the knowledge of how to prevent their kidneys from failing, they would be able to live a longer and healthier life than their parents.

References
Bapat, U., Nayak, S., & Keleya, P. (2008). Demographics and social factors associated with acceptance of treatment in patients with chronic kidney disease. Saudi Journal of Kidney Disease and Transplantation: An Official Publication Of the Saudi Center For Organ Transplantation, Saudi Arabia, 19(1), 132-136. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
The National Kidney Foundation. (2013). About chronic kidney disease. Retrieved from http://www.kidney.org/kidneydisease/aboutckd.cfm
Elliot, R. (2012). Demographics of the older adult and chronic kidney disease: A literature review. Nephrology nursing journal. 39(6), 491-496. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.