The Time-Dependent Effect of Assistance on Peritoneal Dialysis Duration: An Analysis of Data from the French Language Peritoneal Dialysis Registry

Key Points It is unknown whether the benefit of assisted peritoneal dialysis (PD) programs appears immediately after PD initiation or rather after some time spent on PD. The protective effect of assisted PD on the risk of transfer to hemodialysis was not constant over time; it started after the first 6 months on PD. Assisted PD programs should be sustainable for at least 6 months to observe their benefits. Background Peritoneal dialysis (PD) patient compliance is crucial for the prevention of complications. Assistance is associated with a lower risk of transfer to hemodialysis. As the risk of noncompliance increases over time, the protective effect of assistance on the risk of transfer to hemodialysis may not be immediate after PD initiation, but rather may appear after some time on PD. We aimed to analyze the time-varying effect of assistance on the risk of PD cessation. Methods This retrospective study was conducted using data from the French Language PD Registry of incident PD patients between 2002 and 2018. Because of nonproportional hazards, with a change in the effect of the assistance modality on the different outcomes appearing at 6 months after PD initiation, the associations between the assistance modality and the different outcomes were explored using time-dependent coefficient Cox regression. Results The study included 15,675 patients; 6717 deaths, 4973 transfers to hemodialysis, and 3065 kidney transplantations occurred. Both patients receiving nurse- and family-assisted PD had a lower risk of transfer to hemodialysis (mean cause-specific hazard ratio [cs-HR], 0.67; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.62 to 0.72; and mean cs-HR, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.67 to 0.84). In the first 6 months after PD initiation, nurse-assisted PD patients had a greater risk of transfer to hemodialysis (<6 months cs-HR, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.03 to 1.36) but had a lower likelihood afterward (≥6 months cs-HR, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.53 to 0.62). Family-assisted PD was not associated with the risk of transfer to hemodialysis in the first 6 months after PD initiation, and those patients had a lower risk of transfer to hemodialysis afterward (≥6 months cs-HR, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.63 to 0.82). Conclusions When implementing a national nurse-assisted PD program, its positive impact on PD duration should not be expected immediately after PD initiation. Assisted PD programs should be sustainable for at least 6 months to observe their benefits. Podcast This article contains a podcast at https://www.asn-online.org/media/podcast/K360/2024_10_31_KID0000000577.mp3