Study site:
The study was conducted at the Dialysis unit of Gazi Medical College Hospital, ISK Foundation-Afzalia Estate Kidney Center and Sheikh Abu Nasar Hospital in Khulna City. Among these, Sheikh Abu Nasar Hospital is one of the biggest dialysis centers in Khulna City with 20 HD machines and more than 40 patients can be dialyzed every day in two shifts and Most of the data were collected from that hospitals.
Study period:
The survey was conducted from July to December 2014. Initial months were taken for selection of topic, objective setting, followed by literature review, questionnaire development, pre-testing for data collection, data analysis, data entry and submission of report.
Selection of sample:
Following the Purposive sampling method, one hundred twenty chronic kidney failure patients maintaining Hemodialysis were selected from the dialysis unit of Gazi Medical College Hospital, ISK Foundation and Afzalia Estate Kidney Center and Sheikh Abu Nasar Hospital in Khulna City.
Tools development:
A detailed questionnaire was developed, to raise information on various aspects related to renal patients including demographic profile, clinical and health status, symptoms at the onset of disease, existing signs, etiology of renal disease, medications and supplementations being used, complications seen, lifestyle factors and nutritional profile with respect to anthropometry, dietary intake and biochemical parameters. The questionnaire was structured and modified based on the suggestions of the experts. Further, the developed questionnaire was pre-tested on renal patients at Gazi Medical College Hospital and required changes were made before the final survey has started.
Data collection:
The questionnaire was consisted with three segments. The first part containing information on socio-demographic and economic aspects of chronic renal failure patients included age, gender, education, occupation, monthly income of family, family size, number of earning members, activity pattern of the respondent and marital status was collected by interviewing the respondent. The Clinical and health status of dialysis patients were included in the second part. Information on kidney disease and others disorders, date of commencement of maintenance hemodialysis, medication and supplementation were included in this section. Additionally, Present prevalent vices in subjects such as smoking, betel nut, and tobacco chewing were recorded. Information on exercise habits with special reference to type, regularity, benefits observed and who advised alike were collected. Anthropometric measurements viz., height (cm), weight (kg), waist (cm), hip (cm) and mid-arm circumferences (cm) were recorded as per the guidelines according to WHO criteria. Body Mass Index (BMI) was computed using the formula given by Garrow (1987) to classify the individual as normal, obese or underweight where the abdominal obesity was assessed by waist/hip ratio.
Statistical analysis:
The data were compiled from the questionnaire and fed into the Microsoft excel version 2007 and converted into SPSS-20 for statistical analysis. Descriptive statistics were run to check the distribution of the data and to check for errors that had been made in the data entry.