Quality of Life among End Stage Renal Disease Patients on Hemodialysis and Peritoneal Dialysis in the National Kidney and Transplant Institute

Abstract

Background: The Philippine national health insurance’s second highest pay-out goes towards dialysis treatment. The increasing number of patients developing End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) requiring dialysis each year will result in an increasing subsidy by the government. Considering the huge expense of the government to support dialysis treatment, it is important to show that it results in a good Quality of Life (QOL). Objectives: To determine the QOL of Hemodialysis (HD) and Peritoneal Dialysis (PD) patients using the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF) instrument. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study using the self-administered WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire evaluated randomly selected Filipino adult ESRD patients at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute’s (NKTI) Chronic Hemodialysis (HD) Center and from the Chronic Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis (CAPD) clinic. Results: There were185 patients on HD and 225 patients on PD with mean age of 47 and male preponderance. Majority of HD patients were privately paying, while those on PD patients were all financially-subsidized by the Institute. Primary renal disease was due to hypertension. Most were on dialysis for more than 2 years (44.6%). PD patients had higher transformed scores in 3 domains compared with HD patients. Conclusion: PD patients had a higher QOL in the psychological, social relationship and environmental domains; whereas physical domain was higher among HD patients.