Goal: To provide an overview of illness perceptions among minority patients with ethnic/racial differences undergoing maintenance hemodialysis.

Objectives:

Explain illness perceptions among minority patients with ESRD undergoing maintenance hemodialysis from different racial/ethnic groups.
Identify differences in illness perceptions within various racial/ethnic groups according to sociodemographic (age, gender, income, marital status, education) and clinical characteristics (maintenance hemodialysis vintage).

Acknowledgment of Support: Lorraine S. Evangelista, PhD, RN, received support from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (1R01HL093466-01) and from the University of California, Los Angeles, Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research/Center for Health Improvement of Minority Elderly (RCMAR/ CHIME) under NIH/NIA Grant P30-AG02- 1684. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, or the National Institute on Aging, or the National Institutes of Health.

Statement of Disclosure: The authors reported no actual or potential conflict of interest in relation to this continuing nursing education activity.

Joel D. Kopple MD

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