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Multicenter Study
. 2019 Aug 5;20(1):299.
doi: 10.1186/s12882-019-1493-9.

The vascular access questionnaire: a single centre UK experience

M Field  1 , A Z Khawaja  2 , J Ellis  2 , T Nieto  2 , J Hodson  3 , N Inston  2
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

The vascular access questionnaire: a single centre UK experience

M Field et al. BMC Nephrol. .

Abstract

Background: Haemodialysis is capable of prolonging life in patients with end stage renal disease, however this therapy comes with significant negative impact on quality of life. For patients requiring haemodialysis, the need for an adequately functioning vascular access (VA) is an everyday concern. The Vascular Access Questionnaire (VAQ) provides a mechanism for identifying and scoring factors in haemodialysis that impact on patients' quality of life and perception of their therapy.

Methods: Between April 2017-18 the VAQ was administered to prevalent haemodialysis patients at 10 units in the West Midlands via structured interviews.

Results: 749 of 920 potentially eligible patients completed the survey. The mean VAQ score was seen to improve significantly with age (7.7 in < 55 vs. 3.8 in 75+) and the duration of access (8.9 if less than 1 month old vs. 5.0 at a year). Better average scores were demonstrated for Arteriovenous fistulas (AVF) than other modalities (AVF 5.1 vs. AVG (arteriovenous grafts) 7.2 vs. CVC (central venous catheter) 6.6). There was no significant difference in scores between fistulas on non-dominant or dominant arms, with both having a mean of 5.2 (p = 0.341).

Conclusions: Overall, better satisfaction scores were seen in AVF. The presence of an AVF on the non-dominant arm was not a concern for the majority of patients and did not affect the VAQ score. A number of factors were identified that can influence VAQ satisfaction score.

Keywords: Patient experience; Patient reported outcomes; Vascular access; Vascular access questionnaire.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts or competing interests to declare and the results presented in this paper have not been published previously in whole or part, except in abstract format.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The questions related to how much patients had been bothered by the stated concern within the previous 4 weeks. The text of the questions has been abbreviated, with the full detail of the questions reported in Additional file 1: Table S1. Questions are sorted in descending order of the mean score, which is reported in brackets.*Patients responding “Not at All” were not included in the plot, but were considered when calculating the average scores
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Thoughts on CVC vs. AVF by unit Plots represent the proportion of patients answering CVC or AVF – responses of “Equal” or “Not Sure” are not shown. The responses were converted into an ordinal variable, with categories of CVC, Equal/Not Sure combined, and AVF. This was then compared across units using a Kruskal-Wallis test, which returned p = 0.318 and p = 0.115 for questions A and B, respectively
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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