Page 56 - Exploring the Potential of Self-Monitoring Kidney Function After Transplantation - Céline van Lint

54 Chapter 3
point Likert scale from 1, for very poor, to 9 for very good. In addition, health-related information was obtained from the hospital record.
Besides collecting data related to the RTPTA model, additional data was collected related to the specific implementation of this SMSS. The additional questions focussed on satisfaction with the training given in using the system (training), patients’ options on conducting self-management through the system (self- management), contact with doctors (doctor), the time needed to use the system (time), the use of the creatinine device measuring kidney function (creatinine), the use of the blood pressure meter (blood pressure), and their feeling of conducting self-management at home (feeling, only asked at T1 as patients had to have experience with using the SMSS before being able to respond to these items, see Additional file 1). All items were rated on a 7-point Likert scale with 1 for totally disagree to 7 for totally agree with the statement.
Procedure
Intake and training procedure differed between patients receiving a kidney from a living donor and those receiving a kidney from a deceased donor. For recipients of a living donor kidney, the transplantation procedure could be well prepared, so they received an explanation about the experiment, signed the consent form, and got access to MNI website and eLearning before the transplantation. They were explained how to use the system and were encouraged to try it themselves before transplantation. For patients who received a kidney from a deceased donor, the whole procedure was postponed to after transplantation, but was preferably arranged before discharge from the hospital. Around the day of discharge (T0), all patients were asked to complete the T0 questionnaire. At home, patients were asked to use the system regularly, according to a predefined schema for one year: measure and log the data daily during the first four weeks, every other day for week 5-9, twice a week for week 10-15, and weekly from week 16 onwards. After four months of using the system (T1), patients were again asked to complete the questionnaire. Both the baseline and the follow-up questionnaires were distributed in paper form.
Participants
The intervention group consisted of renal transplantation patients who had their most recent transplantation in the LUMC. Sixty-five patients were enrolled into the trial, fifty of them responded to the questionnaire at least once, and 47 completed the one-year trial. Eighteen patients dropped out: one patient’s transplantation was cancelled, four patients cancelled participation before start, one patient was excluded due to high level of creatinine after transplantation, two patients died before start, one patient died after start, four patients never used the system, and five patients quitted after using the system for a