The effect of rural and urban life on peritonitis rates in chronic peritoneal patients

Abstract

Background

It has been reported that living far from the peritoneal dialysis (PD) unit is a risk factor for peritonitis. Considering that PD units are urban located; the question of whether living in a rural area compared to an urban area is a risk factor for peritonitis has arisen.

Methods

From March 2010 to August 2020, 335 episodes of peritonitis in 202 PD patients followed in a single center were evaluated retrospectively. People living in areas with a population <1000 were defined as living in rural areas regardless of their distance from the PD center. Cox regression analysis was used to identify independent factors associated with peritonitis.

Results

A total of 202 PD patients were followed during 791 patient-years (mean follow-up of 3.9 years per patient). Total patients had 335 episodes of peritonitis and the rate of peritonitis was 0.42 episodes per year (episodes/patient-year). Cox regression analysis revealed that living environment (urban vs. rural) was not a risk factor for peritonitis (p = 0.57).

Conclusions

In Turkey, we report that living in a rural area in our region is not a risk factor for peritonitis. It is not the right approach for both the physician and the patient to be reluctant in the choice of PD due to the concern of peritonitis in rural areas.

Keywords:

• Peritoneal dialysis
• urban area
• rural area
• peritonitis rate

Acknowledgments

Applicable.

Ethical approval

All participants gave informed consent and the local institutional ethics committee approved the study methods (Ethical Box. No: B.30.2 AT;0.01.00/12) ‘Declarations Section’– ‘Ethics approval and consent to participate’ sub-section.

Author contributions

ERDEM ÇANKAYA, MURAT ALTUNOK AYCAN MUTLU YAĞANOĞLU: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Data curation, Writing – Original draft preparation. Visualization, Investigation. Supervision Software, Validation. Writing – Reviewing and Editing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during this study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

The authors report no involvement in the research by the sponsor that could have influenced the outcome of this work.