Illness Perceptions of African-Americans with Chronic Kidney Disease.

African-Americans have the highest rates of chronic kidney disease due to type 2 diabetes (T2DM-CKD) and of progression to end-stage renal disease. The purpose of this study was to describe African-American's perceptions of T2DM-CKD: specifically, perceptions of cause, risk, severity, self-management of T2DM-CKD before and after diagnosis, and overall effect on their lives. Informed by the Common Sense Model of Illness, a cross-sectional qualitative study using purposive sampling was conducted.