# Intensive Patient Referral and Education Program prior to Renal Replacement Therapy (iPREP RRT)

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO · 2020 · $324,000

## Abstract

PROJECT ABSTRACT
African Americans with chronic kidney disease (CKD) experience disparities in the quality of their medical care,
self-care and preparation for end stage renal disease (ESRD). Patient education can help African-American
patients with advanced CKD decide to engage in self-care to delay progression to ESRD and about renal
replacement therapy (RRT) treatment options. Hospitalization represents a “missed opportunity” to provide
CKD education and ESRD planning to help patients make informed choices about their care that align with
their preferences. Many patients are hospitalized within three months of dialysis initiation. The hospital also
captures patients who are not otherwise well-linked to the medical system. In prior work our team developed
and implemented PREP RRT, a culturally-tailored, multi-modality patient education intervention for hospitalized
African American patients with advanced CKD using a racially concordant in-person educator and literacy-
sensitive education materials. Our intervention was feasible and effective in increasing patient knowledge but
was not intensive enough to change behavior. Thus, we used adapted an 12- week effective outpatient patient
education program to complement our in-patient pilot program to increase patient knowledge, improve self-
care behavior and strengthen linkage to care. In this proposal, we will conduct a randomized trial to test the
effectiveness of the intensive PREP RRT intervention for hospitalized African American patients with advanced
CKD with both a hospital-based intervention and a 12 week community-based intervention. We seek to
increase patient knowledge, self-efficacy, self-management behavior, health seeking behavior, RRT planning
and blood pressure control. We have assembled a strong team with skills in CKD health disparities, hospital-
based and community-based interventions, randomized trial design, culturally-tailored patient-education, and
theory-based intervention development. After successful completion of our aims, we will have developed an
effective intervention that will reduce disparities by improving patient's CKD- related knowledge, behavior and
care. We will also have the ability to disseminate the intervention across settings and to adapt the intervention
for other patient populations.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10121776
- **Project number:** 1R01DK124597-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
- **Principal Investigator:** MILDA Renne SAUNDERS
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $324,000
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-09-20 → 2024-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10121776

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10121776, Intensive Patient Referral and Education Program prior to Renal Replacement Therapy (iPREP RRT) (1R01DK124597-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10121776. Licensed CC0.

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