Acceptability and Feasibility of Interventions for Integrated Care of Chronic Kidney Disease With Other Long-term Health Conditions in Malawi: a Qualitative Study

Inclusion criteria

• Eligibility criteria for each of the participant groups described above are as follows:

Patients:

• Adults aged ≥ 18 years
• Diagnosed with CKD, or at risk of CKD, AND at least one other long-term health condition out of:

• Hypertension
• Diabetes mellitus
• HIV infection
• Heart failure
• Stroke (See Table 1 for diagnostic inclusion criteria for each of the above conditions)
• Receiving outpatient care at one of the selected study sites, for at least 6 months

Caregivers:

• Adults aged ≥ 18 years
• Identified by a patient meeting the above inclusion criteria to be their primary caregiver

Healthcare workers:

• Adults aged ≥ 18 years
• Currently employed as a healthcare worker at either QECH, Chiradzulu District Hospital, Ndunde Health Centre or Namadzi Health Centre.
• Working in an outpatient clinic environments where care is delivered for patients with any of the above conditions, which may include (but is not limited to) the following:

• CKD clinic (QECH)
• Hypertension clinic (QECH)
• Diabetes clinic (QECH)
• HIV clinic (all study locations, including the Lighthouse clinic at QECH)
• Cardiology /chest clinic (QECH)
• General non-communicable disease (Chiradzulu District Hospital and its referring primary health centres)

Policy makers

• Adults aged ≥ 18 years
• Identified through stakeholder mapping and/or snowball sampling to have a leading role relevant to planning, managing and implementing services and/or policies for NCDs and/or other LTCs.

Exclusion criteria

• • Under 18 years of age

• Acute physical or mental illness, which requires urgent treatment and might impact on ability to participate in and complete interview
• Current hospital inpatient
• Unable to participate in interview due to severe communication difficulties (e.g. aphasia), confusion or behavioural disturbance
• Declines consent