Quality of life in peritoneal dialysis patients: decline over time and association with clinical outcomes.

Background: Quality of life (QoL) is increasingly well recognized as an important measure of treatment outcome. The aim of this study was to determine which key factors affect QoL, which aspects of QoL change over time, and if measurements of QoL were associated with clinical outcome in our peritoneal dialysis (PD) population.

Methods: The results of 88 patients (70% of our PD population) enrolled in longitudinal studies of dialysis adequacy, nutrition, and quality of life were reviewed.