Psychological Aspects and Patients Compliance to Restricted-protein Regimens in Chronic Kidney Disease

The interest in dietary management resurged, since the high prevalence of revealed a major impact not only on morbidity, mortality, social activities and patients' quality of life, but also on health budget. Although protein-restricted diets are used for more than a century in patients with advanced Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), their efficacy and safety is still debatable. Enough evidence has being accumulated on their role in postponing dialysis initiation in compliant patients. Consequently, the long-term compliance to the diet is discussed. Psychological aspects of compliant patients are certainly involved. Identification of certain psychological predictors of dietary compliance could help to select the patients who are more likely to be compliant and therefore to benefit from such an intervention. Moreover, short-term or long-term psychological intervention addressing these factors could increase patient long-term compliance. Accordingly, we are aiming to evaluate psychological characteristics of Chronic Kidney Disease patients in relation with their compliance to protein-restricted regimens.