Dr LIANA CANDILORO1, WAYNE THAI1, ADAM FLAVELL1, SANDRA CRIKIS1, CRAIG NELSON1,2,3, HANNAH WALLACE1,2,3
1Western Health, St Albans, Australia, 2Western Health Chronic Disease Alliance, St Albans, Australia, 3The University of Melbourne Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, Parkville, Australia
Biography:
Liana is a Basic Physician Trainee at Western Health, where she has worked for four years. She has a keen interest in nephrology and its intersection with public health and health-related quality of life.
Aim:
To describe the travel time for haemodialysis patients dialysing at preferred and non-preferred sites, and to explore the patient impact of this.
Background:
Australian data exists regarding an undersupply of haemodialysis capacity, however, there has been limited assessment of the patient experience of travel time and impact on quality of life.
Methods:
Adult (age >18 years) chronic haemodialysis patients at a metropolitan health service in Melbourne, Australia, were invited to complete an anonymous survey regarding travel to dialysis and cost, and a validated quality of life questionnaire (EQ-5D-5L HR-QOL). Differences in travel time, cost and quality of life scores were compared across groups dialysing at preferred versus non-preferred sites.
Results:
The survey response rate was 52.1% (147 patients), with 77.2% dialysing at their preferred site. Patients dialysing at their preferred site had a lower travel time with 80.4% reporting a travel time <30 minutes compared to 31.3% of patients dialysing at their non-preferred site (p<0.001). Travel costs were lower for patients dialysing at their preferred site with 82.0% having <$50 weekly cost compared to 51.6% of those dialysing at a non-preferred site (p<0.001). Overall, 9.2% of participants reported they had previously missed sessions due to issues with transportation or travel time. There was no statistically significant association between dialysing at preferred site and EQ-5D-5L or EQ VAS scores, however more participants dialysing at non-preferred sites reported travel time at least moderately affected their lives (50.0% vs. 26.3%, p=0.017).
Conclusions:
Patients dialysing at non-preferred sites had longer travel times, higher cost and greater self-reported impacts of travel.