Dialysis Organization Online Information on Kidney Failure Treatments: A Content Analysis Using Corpus Linguistics

Effectiveness of an Intervention to Improve Decision Making for Older Patients With Advanced Chronic Kidney Disease : A Randomized Controlled Trial

BACKGROUND

Older patients with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) face difficult decisions about managing kidney failure, frequently experiencing decisional conflict, regret, and treatment misaligned with preferences.

OBJECTIVE

To assess whether a decision aid about kidney replacement therapy improved decisional quality compared with usual care.

DESIGN

Multicenter, randomized, controlled trial. (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03522740).

SETTING

8 outpatient nephrology clinics associated with 4 U.S. centers.

PARTICIPANTS

English-fluent patients, 70 years and older with nondialysis CKD stages 4 to 5 recruited from 2018 to 2020.

INTERVENTION

DART (Decision-Aid for Renal Therapy) is an interactive, web-based decision aid for older adults with CKD. Both groups received written education about treatments.

MEASUREMENTS

Change in the decisional conflict scale (DCS) score from baseline to 3, 6, 12, and 18 months. Secondary outcomes included change in prognostic and treatment knowledge and change in uncertainty.

RESULTS

Among 400 participants, 363 were randomly assigned: 180 to usual care, 183 to DART. Decisional quality improved with DART with mean DCS declining compared with control (mean difference, -8.5 [95% CI, -12.0 to -5.0]; P < 0.001), with similar findings at 6 months, attenuating thereafter. At 3 months, knowledge improved with DART versus usual care (mean difference, 7.2 [CI, 3.7 to 10.7]; P < 0.001); similar findings at 6 months were modestly attenuated at 18 months (mean difference, 5.9 [CI, 1.4 to 10.3]; P = 0.010). Treatment preferences changed from 58% "unsure" at baseline to 28%, 20%, 23%, and 14% at 3, 6, 12, and 18 months, respectively, with DART, versus 51% to 38%, 35%, 32%, and 18% with usual care.

LIMITATION

Latinx patients were underrepresented.

CONCLUSION

DART improved decision quality and clarified treatment preferences among older adults with advanced CKD for 6 months after the DART intervention.

PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE

Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI).