Reducing the risk of chronic kidney disease progression in patients with chronic kidney disease with adherence to Dietary Approaches to stop Hypertension diet

Abstract

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is affecting approximately 10% of the world population. Although this is a progressive disease it can also be preventable and its progress can be slowed down. Delaying the onset of CKD progression will enable the patient to live longer. CKD progression may be delayed by adopting a healthier lifestyle diet and the Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension (DASH) may be beneficial diet for people with CKD. The research question is formulated as follows: In patients with CKD does DASH diet reduce the risk of CKD progression? The search strategy identified key terms, search tools and limiters and focused on answering the PICO question. The population consists of patients with CKD adhering to DASH diet. The comparison ‘no DASH diet’ was not included in the search. The excepted outcome is whether DASH diet reduces the risk of CKD progression. Six databases were applied for the search and the chosen studies focused on CKD patients, the DASH diet and the reduced risk of CKD progression were included. Studies which focused on patients with acute kidney failure, others on the Mediterranean diet and those that did not include the reducing the risk of CKD progression were excluded. By shifting through the records, the database research removed all the duplicates and irrelevant articles, until three systematic reviews and meta-analysis articles and a cross-sectional study were found to be pertinent to the study. The selected studies were critically appraised by the Critical Appraisal Tools. The relevant articles were critically appraised to test the validity, results and clinical relevance. The studies showed that adherence to the DASH dietary pattern may lessen CKD progression but the researchers themselves highlighted that this area merits further research for more concrete results. Recommendations and implications included training Health Care Professionals (HCPs), introduction of educative sessions to patients and introducing DASH diet practical recipes.