Early Phosphate Intervention Qualitative Study (version 1.0)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Early phosphate intervention: An exploration of parent’s views towards and knowledge of dietary phosphate management in children with Stage 3 Chronic Kidney Disease attending a specialist paediatric nephrology clinic
IRAS ID
200608
Contact name
Fiona Moffatt
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Research and Graduate Services
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 0 days
Research summary
Children’s Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), in particular dialysis, costs the NHS a lot of money. When kidneys are not working well, some of the body salts start to increase. Phosphate is an important body salt. Over time if phosphate levels are poorly controlled it can cause many problems, such as, damage to heart vessels, poor growth, and speed up kidney damage and can cause death.
CKD is described by how well the kidneys are working, Stage 1 is mild kidney function and 5 is the most severe, when dialysis is required. During Stage 3 CKD, certain body salts and hormones (chemical substances which act like messengers) start to rise. Blood phosphate levels may show up as normal on a blood test at this stage, however they will be starting to rise soon. Reducing the amount of dietary phosphate will help to reduce bone hormones and keep the blood phosphate down.
Children’s kidney dietitians provide expert dietary phosphate advice to children and their families. The children’s kidney doctor would see the child every 6-12 months. However, there is little medical research that refers to children’s kidney dietitians seeing these children at Stage 3 CKD. They are normally asked to offer specialist advice when the blood phosphate shows up on a blood test as moderately high; this is usually at Stage 4-5 CKD. By leaving it this late before offering dietary intervention may be speeding up the damage to the kidneys.
Starting a child on a special diet can be disruptive to family life, and may add to the pressure they are already feeling as a result of finding out that their child has a chronic illness.
Medical research has not explored parent’s views towards, and their knowledge of a reduced phosphate diet at Stage 3 CKD. This research project aims to explore these issues by inviting 10 parents that meet certain criteria, to be interviewed for approximately 45 minutes in a research interview room in the children’s outpatient department. The results will help with future improvements in dietary phosphate management in CKD.
REC name
North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 2 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/NE/0158
Date of REC Opinion
13 May 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion