Questionnaire Survey for Dialysis Patients about Withdrawal from Dialysis, Palliative Care
- VernacularTitle:透析中止および緩和ケアについての透析患者に対する意識調査
- Author:
Kaichiro TAMBA
1
;
Tetsu AKIMOTO
2
;
Masaki MURAHASHI
1
Author Information
- Keywords: withdrawal of dialysis; palliative care; end-stage kidney disease
- From:Palliative Care Research 2022;17(4):159-163
- CountryJapan
- Language:Japanese
- Abstract: Dialysis patients’ views on withdrawal from dialysis and palliative care are unclear. We conducted a survey of hemodialysis outpatients in Tochigi prefecture regarding withdrawal from dialysis and palliative care. Among a total of 2170 questionnaires sent, 481 (22.2%) valid responses were obtained. The results showed that 160 (33.3%) answered yes to the question whether they would like to withdraw from dialysis if it becomes too difficult to continue dialysis treatment. Of these, 118 (73.8%) answered they would make that decision by themselves, 107 (22.2%) were currently in some kinds of suffering. In terms of awareness of palliative care, only 60 (12.5%) responded that they knew about palliative care, which was clearly less than in the survey on awareness of palliative care for cancer among the general Japanese population. These results suggested the necessity to promote awareness of palliative care among dialysis patients.
