Professor McDonald said the study addressed an aspect of dialysis care that has historically received less attention despite being highly important to patients.

“People receiving dialysis often experience a significant symptom burden, and those symptoms can have a major impact on their daily lives,” Professor McDonald said.

“While clinicians naturally focus on keeping people well and managing the medical aspects of kidney failure, patients consistently tell us that symptoms and quality of life are among the issues that matter most to them.”

The study also demonstrated that patient-reported outcomes could be routinely collected across a large and geographically diverse dialysis population. 

“A major outcome of this trial is that it proved it’s possible to routinely collect patient-reported outcome measures across a large and geographically diverse dialysis population,” Professor McDonald said.

“The ability to collect this information at scale creates opportunities to use patient-reported outcomes as meaningful endpoints in future clinical trials and to better evaluate interventions that aim to improve patients’ day-to-day wellbeing.”

Professor McDonald said the trial highlighted the value of registry-based studies in delivering large-scale research in real-world settings.

“ANZDATA played a central role in enabling this trial, demonstrating how registry infrastructure can be used to conduct large-scale national clinical trials,” Professor McDonald said.

“Importantly, we were able to recruit patients from a diverse range of dialysis units, including regional and remote services and centres that were previously underrepresented.”

The study included participation from regional and remote areas, with centres such as Thursday Island in the Torres Strait, Singleton in New South Wales, Bairnsdale in Victoria and Whyalla in South Australia contributing to the research.

Professor Morton presented the results as a late breaking abstract at the American Society of Nephrology in Denver, Colorado.