Quality of life in elderly continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis patients.

Objective: In the present study, we determined the characteristic of quality of life (QOL) in elderly peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients by using the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 36 (SF-36) to compare QOL between two age groups of continuous ambulatory PD patients.

Patients And Methods: Patients were allocated to one of two groups according to age: patients in group A were >or=65 years of age, and patients in group B were <65 years of age. We compared SF-36 scores, serum albumin, prealbumin, hemoglobin, lipid profile, normalized protein catabolic rate (nPCR), dialysis adequacy (Kt/V), creatinine clearance (CCr), and glomerular filtration rate (GFR) between the two groups.

Results: Group A contained 25 patients, and group B, 53 patients. Mean age in the two groups was 68.6 +/- 3.3 years and 47.7 +/- 10.2 years respectively. Elderly patients showed lower QOL scores with regard to physical problems. Quality-of-life scores with regard to psychological problems were similar in the two groups. Duration of PD, body mass index, serum albumin, prealbumin, hemoglobin, and lipid profile were not different between the two groups. However, nPCR, GFR, and total solute clearance were lower in group A than in group B (nPCR: 0.70 +/- 0.13 g/kg daily vs 0.95 +/- 0.21 g/kg daily, p < 0.001; GFR: 1.03 +/- 1.21 mL/min vs 3.19 +/- 2.22 mL/min, p < 0.001).

Conclusions: In elderly patients, QOL scores were lower, mainly because of a perception of being more physically impaired. Nutritional indices and QOL scores reflecting psychological processes were similar between the two groups. These descriptive data show that PD is an ideal choice in elderly patients with end-stage renal disease. More attention needs to be paid to "healthy start" dialysis and maintenance of nutritional status in elderly patients because of lower GFR and nPCR.