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Hemodialysis and Peritoneal Dialysis: Patients’ Assessment of Their Satisfaction with Therapy and the Impact of the Therapy on Their Lives

Hospital of St. Raphael, Yale University and the Renal Research Institute, New Haven, Connecticut

Address correspondence to: Dr. Fredric Finkelstein, 136 Sherman Avenue, New Haven, CT 06511. Phone: 203-787-0117; Fax: 203-777-3559; E-mail: fof{at}comcast.net

This study was undertaken to examine patient satisfaction with peritoneal dialysis (PD) and hemodialysis (HD) therapies, focusing attention on the positive and negative impact of the therapies on patients’ lives. Patients were recruited from a free-standing PD unit and two free-standing HD units. A total of 94% (n = 62) of eligible PD and 84% (n = 84) of eligible HD patients participated. HD patients were significantly older and had higher Charlson Comorbidity Index scores than the PD patients, but there were no differences in duration of dialysis treatment, prevalence of diabetes, educational backgrounds, or home situations. Patients were asked to rate their overall satisfaction with and the overall impact of their dialysis therapy on their lives, using a 1 to 10 Likert scale. In addition, patients were asked to rate the impact of their therapy on 15 domains that had been cited previously as being important for patients’ quality of life. The mean satisfaction score for PD patients (8.02 ± 1.41) was higher than for HD patients (7.4 ± 1.4; P = 0.15). PD patients indicated that there was less impact of the dialysis treatment on their lives globally (7.25 ± 2.12 versus 6.19 ± 2.83; P = 0.019). In addition, PD patients noted less impact of the therapy in 14 of the 15 domains examined. With the use of a proportional odds model analysis, the only significant predictor of overall satisfaction and impact of therapy was dialysis modality (P = 0.037 and P = 0.021, respectively). Patients also were asked to comment freely on the positive and negative effects of the dialysis treatments on their lives, and a taxonomy of patient perceptions and concerns was developed. This study suggests that PD patients in general are more satisfied with their overall care and believe that their treatment has less impact on their lives than HD patients.

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