背景：慢性腎臟疾病（chronic kidney disease, CKD)之盛行率及發生率不斷增加，醫療花費亦
高，已是普遍存有的公共衛生議題。個人對於疾病的詮釋會影響其健康相關的行為， 然早期慢性腎臟疾病病患對其疾病的感受表現卻鮮少受到關注。
目的：本質性研究旨在描述台灣的早期CKD病患疾病詮釋與因應過程之經驗。
方法：本研究以立意取樣，從台灣兩家醫學中心腎臟科門診中，招募15位確診為早期CKD之
病患為研究對象。採半結構、開放式之一對一、面對面訪談，訪談結果以質性內容分 析方法進行分析，並以Lincoln與Guba所提的嚴謹度之四個準則進行評核。
結果：從質性分析中得出以下六大主題：經歷到早期症狀、自我解釋其罹患CKD之原因、體
認CKD是一種長期性疾病、相信遵從醫囑就可以控制CKD、預料罹患CKD的後果、以 及採取因應策略來延緩CKD之病程。
結論/本研究發現，健康照護專業人員對於患有腎臟疾病此族群病患，對其疾病的解讀與因
臨床應用應有更進一步的瞭解。相較於過去所發表之研究結果顯示，個人的疾病詮釋可以透過 教育改變，繼而改善個人的因應行為。此發現使健康專業人員更體認到，進行衛生教 育前，必須先評估個案對其疾病的解讀為何，如此方能提供具文化敏感性的介入措 施。

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a public health problem worldwide with an increasing incidence and prevalence and high cost. The role of illness perceptions in understanding health-related behavior has received little attention in patients with early-stage CKD.
Purpose: This qualitative study aimed to describe the illness representation and coping process experience of patients with early-stage CKD in Taiwan.
Methods: A qualitative content analysis approach was used to analyze semistructured, open-ended, one-on-one interviews with 15 patients with early-stage CKD. Purposive sampling was used to recruit patients diagnosed with early-stage CKD from the nephrology departments of two medical centers in Taiwan. Trustworthiness of the study was evaluated using four criteria suggested by Lincoln and Guba.
Results: Six themes emerged from the analysis: experiencing early symptoms, self-interpreting the causes of having CKD, realizing CKD as a long-term disease, believing CKD could be controlled by following doctors' orders, anticipating the conse¬quences of having CKD, and adopting coping strategies to delay the progress of CKD.
Conclusions/Implications for Practice: Findings from this study compared with previous studies reveal that education can effectively change patient illness representations as an ap-proach to improve coping behavior. This finding offers healthcare professionals insight into the health education necessary to as¬sess patient illness representation to provide culturally sensitive interventions.