Vascular access-specific health-related quality of life impacts among hemodialysis patients: qualitative development of the hemodialysis access-related quality of life (HARQ) instrument.

Background: End stage kidney disease and hemodialysis dependence are associated with impairments in health-related quality of life (HRQOL), which may be related to vascular access (VA). Few HRQOL measures are VA-specific and none differentiate HRQOL impact by VA type. We developed a VA-targeted HRQOL measure to distinguish the impact of fistulas, grafts and catheters.