P1313CHANGES IN VASCULAR ACCESS AND HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE

Abstract

Abstract Background and Aims The patient’s reported perception of their health-related quality of life (HRQOL) are important patient-centered metrics that associate with outcomes in hemodialysis (HD) populations. Patients using an arteriovenous (AV) access (fistula or graft) tend to report better HRQOL compared with those dialyzing via a catheter (Wasse et al. 2007; Moura et al. 2014). However, these differences might be due to distinct characteristics of patients who have an AV access placed, or not. For example, catheter-dependent patients are typically older and have more comorbidities than those with an AV access. We considered a different way to evaluate the impact of vascular access on HRQOL in HD patients by assessing whether a change from a catheter to an AV access, and vice versa, associates with changes in HRQOL. Method We used data from adult in-center HD patients (age ≥18 years) treated at a large dialysis organization in the United States from 2016-2017. Patients who had one vascular access conversion and used the corresponding access for at least 12 months before and after the conversion were included in the analysis. HRQOL was assessed by Kidney Disease Quality of Life (KDQOL-36) surveys (0-100 scale) performed over the 12 months preceding and following the change. We computed the mean score for each of the five KDQOL domains in each time period and compared the score differences between pre- and post-access change using Student’s t-tests for each conversion type. Results A total of 1088 HD patients (mean age 59.2 years, 52.6% male, and 59.3% white race) switched from a catheter to an AV access and 3427 patients (mean age 61.8 years, 47.8% male, and 50.7% white race) switched from an AV access to a catheter over the analysis period. After conversion from a catheter to an AV access, patients reported significantly higher physical component summary (+0.5, p<0.05), mental component summary (+0.8, p<0.001), symptoms and problems of kidney disease (+0.7, p<0.05), and effects of kidney disease (+1.2, p<0.05) scores (Figure 1). No significant difference was observed for four out of the five domains following the change from an AV access to a catheter, except for physical component summary, where the score dropped by 1.2 points (p<0.01) (Figure 2). Conclusion Our results suggest switching from a catheter to an AV access may associate with patients perceiving an improved physical and mental HRQOL. In contrast, changing from an AV access to a catheter might associate with a diminished perception of physical HRQOL. Albeit distinctions in HRQOL are statistically significant, absolute differences were below two points and the clinical meaning needs to be assessed in further adjusted analyses considering the underlying reasons for vascular access conversions. Nonetheless, these findings may be of importance to provide more patient focused care.