Quality of life in automated and continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis.

OBJECTIVE: Despite a lack of strong evidence, automated peritoneal dialysis (APD) is often prescribed on account of an expected better quality of life (QoL) than that expected with continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD). Our aim was to analyze differences in QoL in patients starting dialysis on APD or on CAPD with a follow-up of 3 years.

METHODS: Adult patients in the prospective NECOSAD cohort who started dialysis on APD or CAPD were included 3 months after the start of dialysis. The Medical Outcomes Survey Short Form 36 [SF-36 (Medical Outcomes Trust and QualityMetric, Lincoln, RI, USA)] and Kidney Disease and Quality of Life Short Form [KDQOL-SF (KDQOL Working Group, Santa Monica, CA, USA)] questionnaires were used to measure QoL. Differences in QoL over time were calculated using linear mixed models. Patients were followed until transplantation, death, or a first switch to any other dialysis modality.

RESULTS: The clinical and social characteristics of the 64 APD and 486 CAPD patients were slightly different at baseline. In the crude analysis, the pattern of the mental summary score differed between the modalities (p = 0.03, adjusted p = 0.06), because of a different pattern for role function emotional (p = 0.03, adjusted p = 0.05). The pattern of the physical summary score was not different between the groups. Scores on dialysis staff encouragement had a different pattern over time (p = 0.01), because of an inequality in scores 3 months after the start of dialysis, which disappeared after 18 months on dialysis. Over time, patients on APD scored higher on sexual function. After adjustment for age, sex, glomerular filtration rate, comorbidity, and primary kidney disease, that difference disappeared. This study showed no major differences in QoL on the KDQOL-SF and the SF-36 between the two modalities.