Fostering Self-Empowerment in CKD Patients Through Food Choice Mapping

Diet is integral in CKD management; however, it is not sustainable for patients in the long term if there is solely emphasis on food restrictions without providing knowledge on modifying food choices to allow enjoyment. Thus, a strategic nutritional education approach needs to be adopted to maximise cost-effectiveness. Patients' self-empowerment is gaining recognition as a means to optimise hospital resource utilisation, reduce healthcare costs, and decrease patients' dependency on medical services. This is particularly relevant for patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), who are required to adhere to a disease management regimen that often conflicts with their pre-diagnosis lives and priorities. In recent years, mobile applications have emerged as a popular platform for delivering nutrition education programs. Research indicates that mobile applications designed to engage patients and promote self-management of CKD show promise in improving adherence to dietary restrictions related to sodium, potassium, phosphorus, protein, calories, and fluid intake. Some of these applications offer a range of features but will still need to be reviewed by dietitians during face-to-face consultations. This in-depth approach, while beneficial, may not fully optimise time efficiency for dietitians. Thus, there is an impetus to create an improved mobile application for CKD nutritional management to allow patients to individualise food choices, on top of charting food intake in the form of food diary. Patients can be trained to use the application during dietetics session which can eventually help reduce time spent for each session thereby improving dietitians' workload. The proposed application will also incorporate some preliminary Artificial Intelligence (AI) to offer personalised food choices for patients. This feature is expected to further enhance the user-friendliness and convenience of the application, thereby promoting its usage and empowerment among CKD patients.