Assessment for Assisted Peritoneal Dialysis by Peritoneal Dialysis Nurses: Results of a Cohort Study

Selection of patients for assisted peritoneal dialysis (PD) is based on the nurse's assessment of the patient. There is no data available about the nurse's assessment of the PD patient at the initiation of PD to estimate the need for assisted PD at the national level. This study was carried out to evaluate the association between the nurse's subjective assessment of the patient's inability to be treated by self-care PD, the nurse evaluation of the patient disabilities and the utilization of nurse or family assisted PD.

This was a retrospective study of patients starting PD between July 1, 2010 and 2015 and registered in the nurse section of the French Language PD Registry (RDPLF). Poisson regression and a linear regression model with a robust variance estimator were used for the statistical analysis to determine relative risks (RRs) and risk differences (RDs).

Of 4,101 PD patients, 403 were treated by family assisted PD, and 1,695 were treated by nurse-assisted PD. In the multivariate analysis, the nurse's subjective assessment of the patient's inability to be treated by self-care PD was associated with nurse-assisted PD (5.40 [4.58-6.35], 67% [64-70%]) and family assisted PD (11.11 [8.49-14.56], RD 62% [57-67%]). Nurse-assisted PD and family assisted PD were associated with functional impairment (RR 1.25 [95% CI 1.16-1.36], RD 14% [95% CI 10-19%] and RR 2.02 [95% CI 1.69-2.41], RD 27% [95% CI 20-34%] respectively), cognitive dysfunction (RR 1.23 [95% CI 1.15-1.32], RD 15% [95% CI 11-18%] and RR 1.73 [95% CI 1.39-2.16], RD 12% [95% CI 7-18%] respectively) and deafness (RR 1.10 [95% CI 1.04-1.16], RD 8% [95% CI 5-11%] and RR 1.46 [95% CI 1.22-1.74], RD 10% [95% CI 6-14%] respectively).

Our results showed that the nurse's subjective assessment of the patient's inability to be treated by self-care PD and the patient's disabilities were strongly associated with the utilization of nurse- and family assisted PD.