Quality of life and emotional distress in patients and burden in caregivers: a comparison between assisted peritoneal dialysis and self-care peritoneal dialysis

Purpose Assisted peritoneal dialysis (PD) involving caregivers allows more patients to get started on homebased dialysis with good clinical outcomes, but evidence on patient-reported and caregiver-reported outcomes is lacking. This study aimed to compare assisted PD versus self-care PD on quality of life (QoL) and psychosocial outcomes for patients and caregivers. The effect of PD modality [automated PD (APD); continuous ambulatory PD (CAPD)] in relation to self-care or assisted care was also examined. Methods A cross-sectional sample of 231 PD patients [142 self-care (57 APD/85 CAPD) and 89 assisted care PD (45 APD/44 CAPD)], 72 caregivers of assisted PD patients and 39 family members of self-care PD patients completed the Kidney Disease Quality of Life Short Form (KDQOL-SF), World Health Organisation Quality of Life Instrument- brief and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Caregivers and family members completed the Lay Care-Giving for Adults Receiving Dialysis questionnaire and Zarit Burden Interview. Results Case-mix-adjusted comparisons indicated comparable QoL in all dimensions with the exception of physical SF-12 (p=.001) and the KDQOL effects of kidney disease in favour of self-care PD. Levels of anxiety (9.72 +/- 4.90; 8.25 +/- 5.22) and depression (8.63 +/- 3.80; 6.35 +/- 4.76) were equivalent in assisted PD and self-care PD, respectively. Assisted PD caregivers reported more task-orientated duties (p=.007), yet levels of perceived burden were equal to those reported by family members of self-care PD. Conclusion Our findings of mostly comparable patient and caregiver outcomes in assisted PD and self-care PD suggest that caregiver burden and QoL should not be a barrier to using assisted PD.