Quality of Life: comparison between patients on automated peritoneal dialysis and patients on hemodialysis

Objective: To evaluate the health-related quality of life in patients from a satellite dialysis center in So Paulo city undergoing Automated Peritoreal Dialysis (APD) or Hemodialysis. Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study included 101 patients with ages ranging from 18 to 75 years-old, who were in dialysis treatment over 90 days and able to understand the items of the SF-36 questionnaire in Portuguese. Results: The Hemodialysis group (n=79) had been in dialysis treatment longer (p=0.001) and had higher serum albumin level (p<0.001) than the APD group (n=22). The SF-36 scores of the two groups were similar in all dimensions, except for the physical functioning dimension, on which the hemodialysis group had higher scores than the APD group (p=0.03). There were no statistically significant interactions between the SF-36 score and the other variables of the study. Conclusion: There were no differences in quality of life between patients on APD and patients on hemodialysis, except for the physical functioning dimension.