2023-07-25 18:55:00
Experts make known the health disparities of patients with chronic kidney disease in Puerto Rico.
By: Luisa Ochoa
Julio 25, 2023
The incidence and prevalence of kidney disease is increasing in Puerto Rico and more and more patients reach such extreme progression that they need dialysis to be treated.
Although the responsibility for the increase in cases falls most of the time on the patients and their lifestyles, there is also evidence of a problem that worsens the care of kidney disease and is the inequity in the treatments for the management of the condition.
This was explained by Dr. Rafael Burgos Calderón, nephrologist, who has extensive medical experience caring for patients with kidney disease in Puerto Rico and has observed the management of this condition in Latin American countries.
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“The structure of systems of health is directed at the disease, but not at prevention, for this reason, in 1995 we coined the term health renal disease, but prevention is still lacking in Latin America. We have to revolutionize the practice of medicine more towards prevention,” he said.
Kidney disease does not usually present early symptoms, so the expert considers it important that doctors and patients prioritize the detection of this condition through periodic tests that allow knowing the state of the disease. health kidney before it’s too late.
Health disparities in care for kidney problems
For her part, Ángela Díaz, executive director of the Renal Council of Puerto Ricoannounced that in addition to the importance of prevention and education about kidney disease, it is necessary to reduce the disparities of health that patients face once diagnosed.
“There are some social determinants that do not allow the patient to arrive on time. We can mention the levels of poverty, educational levels, how much the population knows about the subject of health and that also explains why 50% of patients arrive on dialysis without ever having received an orientation or referral in time to a nephrologist,” he explained.
Impact of kidney failure in Puerto Rico
And that’s not the only revealing figure, as the Renal Council of Puerto Rico It is estimated that on the island there may be more than 350,000 people with renal insufficiency without knowing it. In fact, Puerto Rico It is among the top 10 countries with the highest incidence of dialysis patients.
There are multiple factors that prevent patients from achieving adherence to their treatment for kidney disease and one of them is the difficulty in transportation, which they need to receive the therapies.
“We know that 30% of patients’ non-adherence to treatment is related to transportation to their dialysis. Half of the dialysis patients in Puerto Rico they depend on non-emergency transportation, so there are almost 3,000 people who continually need how to get to treatment and we are talking about almost 330 trips a year,” Diaz said.
In addition to that, the experts mentioned that there are other barriers in terms of the age of the patients, their complications of health and disabilities that they have, which make it difficult to timely care for these chronic conditions.
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