Telehealth Service for Patients Receiving Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to assess the feasibility and acceptability of delivering a telehealth intervention, called PD Telehealth, for improving health outcomes among Thai patients receiving continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD).Materials and Methods: This pilot study enrolled 104 patients receiving CAPD, who were randomly classified into two groups: PD Telehealth group (PD Telehealth service plus usual care; n = 52) and usual care group (usual care only; n = 52). The 6-month telehealth service was provided to participants to deliver self-management support and telemonitoring while they received home-based treatment. Further, the repeated measures mixed analysis of variance test was used to assess health outcomes at baseline, 3 months, and 6 months. Additionally, feasibility and acceptability were assessed.Results: Notably, the measured baseline characteristics of the two groups were not different. Regarding quality of life, a significant interaction effect was observed on two domains of the 36-Item Short Form Survey-general health (p = 0.002) and reported health transition (p = 0.018). However, self-management and clinical outcomes did not differ significantly between the two groups over 6 months. The PD Telehealth group demonstrated high acceptability and feasibility of the application.Conclusion: The PD Telehealth service has been demonstrated to be feasible and acceptable for providing care to patients receiving CAPD. However, there were no significant differences in the main outcomes of the study. Further research studies involving a larger and more diverse sample population and conducted over a longer period are needed.