Investigating Some Factors relevant to Diet Observance in Hemodialysis Patients Based on Health belief Model in 2014-Qom

Background & Aims of the Study: Diet observance plays a crucial role in improvement of life quality for hemodialysis patients. The present survey aims at determining the factors relevant to diet observance in hemodialysis patients admitted in hemodialysis centers in Qom in 2014. Through this descriptive survey, the sample population, which included 60 qualified hemodialysis patients admitted in four hemodialysis centers in Qom, was given a researcher-made questionnaire consisting of demographic information such as age, gender, marital status, education, the hospital, and duration of disease. The questionnaire also included 19 yes/ no questions determining the hemodialysis patients’ awareness about diet, and 31 questions as awareness evaluation in terms of health-belief model based diet in Likert scale. The validity of the questionnaires was confirmed by six faculty members, and through Cronbach’s Alpha, their coefficient of consistency showed 81%, correlation coefficient was 0.81, and slight standard deviation was reported. The data was analyzed through Cronbach’s Alpha, Pearson correlation coefficient, ANOVA, T test, and 31st version of SPSS software. The results indicated that there was a meaningful and indirect relationship between age and factors such as structures of perceived susceptibility (r= -0.169), and perceived severity (r= -0.193), self efficacy (r= -0.206), and also between duration of disease and factors such as structures of perceived susceptibility (r= -0.166), perceived severity (r= -0/108), and finally, self efficacy (r= -0.188). However, there is a significant and direct relationship between age and some factors such as perceived barriers (r= 0.208), and between duration of disease and awareness (r=0.117), and perceived barriers (r= 0.266). Among the results of this study, it is noticeable that the older the patients become, the more their awareness about the dialysis diet must increase; while, as the patients grow older and their duration of disease lasts longer, some of their model structures such as severity, susceptibility and efficacy which relate to their dialysis diet, do decline.