African Americans’ Perceptions of Chronic Kidney Disease

This study will identify factors among African Americans (AAs) that contribute to impeding the progression of chronic kidney disease due to type 2 diabetes (T2DM-CKD). AAs have the highest prevalence of T2DM-CKD and the highest rate of progression to end stage renal disease compared to other ethnic groups. Researchers who implemented an intervention (ADN study) to impede the progression of T2DM-CKD found 60% of participants had stable or slow decline in kidney function (responders) and 40% had rapid decline in kidney function (non- responders) among the experimental and control group. Understanding the factors that contribute to responder status will aid the development of behavioral interventions aimed to complement the well-known effective physiological strategies in preventing progression of T2DM-CKD among AAs. This pilot study’s purpose is to determine the feasibility of using the proposed methodology to conduct a major qualitative study aimed to identify factors among AAs that contribute to impeding the progression of T2DM-CKD. A cross sectional qualitative descriptive design with purposive sampling to recruit 7 responders and 7 non-responders from the ADN study will be utilized. Each participant will participate in a 60 to 90 minute audio taped semi structured face-to-face interview to explore their perception of their T2DM-CKD and their self-management of their T2DM-CKD. The study aims to determine the feasibility of conducting qualitative interviews focused on describing: (1) AA ADN responders’ and non-responders’ perception of their T2DM-CKD, and their self-management of T2DM-CKD and (2) similarities and differences among AA ADN responders and non-responders regarding their disease-related perception