Depressive Symptoms in Predicting Transition and Self-Management among Youth with CKD (2013)
Undergraduates: Karina Javalkar, Caroline Stroud, Sarah Cohen Nicole Fenton Mark Hensel
Faculty Advisor: Maria Ferris
Department: Health Policy & Management
Introduction: This investigation examined the role of depressive symptoms in understanding transition and self-management.
Methods: The IRB-approved measures were: a demographics questionnaire, CES-D (CES-D, Radloff, 1977), and The UNC TRxANSITION Scale (Ferris et. al. 2012)
Results: 25 youth (ages 12 to 29) with CKD stages ≥ 4 have been enrolled. Their demographic characteristics were as follows: 60% female, 44% Caucasian; 32% African-American, 16% Hispanic. The mean age was 21.56 (¿ 4.7) and the mean age at diagnosis was 9.47 (¿8.46).
The TRxANSITION Scale average was 8.31 out of 10 (¿ 1.52). The three domains with the lowest scores were Nutrition (¿ = .75), Insurance (¿ = .75), and New provider knowledge (¿ = .71) out of 1. The mean score on the CES-D was 20.19 out of 44 (¿ 5.71).
Depressive symptoms were a significant negative predictor of transition self-management (β = -.41, p=.07). Depressive symptoms were also a significant negative predictor of New provider knowledge (β= -.42, p=.06), Insurance knowledge (β= -.42, p= .06), and Self-management (β= -.43, p= .05).
Conclusions: Youth with CKD who experience more depressive symptoms are at risk for lower transition self-management. This may suggest that patients with depression or depressive symptoms need additional support from mental health professionals as well as health care providers for effective transition self-management.