Introduction:

People with chronic kidney disease on dialysis require greater care due to the complex management of their condition, the multiple complications associated with treatment and the need to adopt healthy lifestyles in order to guarantee the effectiveness and safety of the therapies.

Objective:

To determine the self-care competence of people on dialysis, as well as its relationship with socio-demographic and clinical characteristics.

Methodology:

A descriptive cross-sectional observational study was carried out in a renal unit in southern Colombia. Instruments used: Characterisation survey for the care of the person with chronic disease, clinical characteristics form and the patient-version of the Competence for Care Questionnaire.

Results:

200 dialysis patients were included, with a mean age of 59±13.89 years, 50.5% women, with a stable partner, support for their care, primary education, dedicated to household chores, and low socioeconomic level. 47.5% showed high self-care competence, 42% medium competence and 10.5% low competence. Statistically significant associations of self-care competence with the variables punctual attendance to therapy (p=0.024) and pharmacological adherence (p=0.001) were identified.

Conclusions:

The population studied was characterised by living in socioeconomic conditions that increase the vulnerability of the dialysed person, most of them had support for care, presented a high to medium level of competence for self-care, related to punctual attendance at therapy and compliance with pharmacological adherence.