154 Journal of Pharmacy and Nutrition Sciences, 2018, 8, 154-162 ISSN: 2223-3806 / E-ISSN: 1927-5951/18 © 2018 SET Publisher Effectiveness of Web-Based Nutrition Education for Chronic Kidney Disease Patients Suyanee Pongthananikorn * , Jitprasong Lamsaard and Tippawan Siritientong Department of Food and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand Abstract: Background: In the early stages of chronic kidney disease (CKD), encouraging health behaviors can help prevent the progression of kidney disease leading to eventual kidney failure. The studies of health education using computer technology have been greatly developed, especially web-based nutrition education. Objective: To determine the effectiveness of a nutrition education website for CKD patients. Method: The design of this quasi-experimental research was a group pre-test/post-test. The participants were pre- dialysis CKD patients who were enrolled on the developed website www.banraktai.com. The participants were required to complete an eating behavior questionnaire and knowledge test. They accessed the website for eight weeks, and at week 8, they completed the eating behavior questionnaire and knowledge test again. The main outcomes were the changes in scores of nutrition knowledge and eating behavior that were compared between the baseline and after the intervention using the paired t-test. The correlation between nutrition knowledge scores and eating behavior scores was determined using Spearman’s correlation coefficient. Results: There were 44 participants that completed the study. The results showed that the participants had significant improvement in both knowledge scores and consumption behavior scores (p < 0.001 and p = 0.041, respectively). However, there was no correlation between the nutrition knowledge scores and the eating behavior scores. Conclusions: Web-based nutrition education can improve knowledge scores but is not effective enough to encourage and motivate CKD patients to make eating behavior changes. Keywords: Chronic kidney disease, web-based nutrition education, patient education, nutrition knowledge, eating behavior. INTRODUCTION Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major public health problem, of which the prevalence and rate of incidence in the past few years have been increasing in Thailand. In the early stages of CKD, encouraging health behaviors can help prevent the progression of kidney disease that leads to eventual kidney failure. Promoting positive behaviors, such as proper nutrition, physical activity, maintenance of optimal levels of blood sugar and lipid profile, are important methods for patients to slow down the loss of kidney function. Therefore, CKD patients should also have general knowledge of CKD and be aware of their individual risks [1]. However, according to several studies, only a small number of patients can appropriately answer the questions regarding basic etiology prognosis and treatment of CKD. Some patients and families are unable to remember medical information regarding how to prevent kidney failure. Most CKD patients neither know the stage of their kidney disease nor know how to slow the progression of the disease [1-5]. *Address correspondence to this author at 254 Phyathai Road, Pathumwan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand; Tel: (+66)2-218-8297; E-mail: suyanee.p@chula.ac.th Consequently, poor nutrition and health care in CKD patients results in bad practice, and also causes negative health effects. The use of technology has changed the way that patients learn about health and nutrition. There are many nutrition and health education studies available for patients using computer technology. According to Wedman’s study [6], an interactive videodisc (IVD) on dietary restrictions for hemodialysis patients was developed. This study showed that most participants improved their health behaviors, including compliance with sodium restriction, fluid modification, and protein serving size reduction. In addition, McMahon et al. [7] has shown that diabetic participants who received web- based care management had a significantly lower glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA 1C ) when compared to the baseline. Later, development of a computer- assisted instruction (CAI) program on dietary control was applied to prevent ischemic heart disease among people with high levels of risk. It was found that this intervention could significantly improve the participants’ post-test knowledge scores [8]. In Thailand, the studies on health education using computer technology have been greatly developed. However, there are few developed tools that can efficiently be applied to