Background

It is important to develop self-management behaviours in adolescents to prevent chronic kidney disease progression.

Objectives

This study evaluates the effect of a self-management program that was developed based on individual and family self-management theory to aid adolescents with chronic kidney disease in the acquisition of competencies in the management of their disease.

Design

This is a randomized controlled study.

Participants

The study was conducted with 20 intervention and 20 control patients, who were treated at two hospitals in Ankara between December 2018 and May 2019.

Measurements

Self-Management Assessment Form, Paediatric Quality of Life Inventory-Adolescent Form and clinical parameters. A training program, specific to chronic kidney disease, was administered over three sessions in a group training setting when the patients came to the clinic for follow-up. After the training program was completed, the patients were monitored for three months through home visits once every two weeks, totalling six visits.

Results

Following the application of self-management training, a statistically significant difference was found self-management knowledge and behaviours, quality of life and anxiety mean scores of intervention and control group (p <.05), a significant decrease in only blood urea nitrogen among the clinical parameters when compared to the control group.

Conclusions

In this study, a self-management training program was developed based on Individual and Family Self-Management Theory, aiming to have a positive effect on the self-management behaviours of adolescents in the cognitive and psychosocial domains.