The Thai version of the KDQOL-36 questionnaire is reliable and valid for evaluating the quality of life in Thai dialysis patients.

with pharmacist-managed ESA clinics (nϭ314) and at six sites with usual care only (nϭ167); outpatients were followed for 6 months in 2009. We took a VA perspective with projections over a five-year time horizon; costs and effectiveness values were discounted at 3%/yr. Strategy-specific likelihoods of target range hemoglobin values (10-12 g/dl) were based on study results. Utilities for ND-CKD and ESA-related adverse events and their likelihood were obtained from the literature. ESA costs were based on average monthly epoetin and darbepoetin doses per patient during the study and VA ESA cost data. RESULTS: In the base case analysis, cost and effectiveness were $12,500 and 2.096 quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) in the pharmacistmanaged ESA clinics and $15,500 and 2.093 QALYs in usual care; ESA clinics dominated usual care. In one-way sensitivity analyses, ESA clinics no longer dominated if their patients' probability of being in the target range fell to 0.54 (base case 0.71) or if the mean cost/month of epoetin or darbepoetin in ESA clinics increased to approximately $360 (base case $211) or $460 (base case $250), respectively. When all parameters were varied simultaneously in a probabilistic sensitivity analysis, ESA clinics were favored Ն80% of the time regardless of willingness-to-pay threshold. CONCLUSIONS: Pharmacist-managed ESA clinics were less costly and more effective than usual care in patients receiving ESAs for anemia and ND-CKD. Results were robust to variation and support the use of pharmacist-managed ESA clinics.

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The ADM system decreased the workload of pharmacy technicians, whereas it required more time from pharmacists. However, the increased workload of pharmacists was associated with more comprehensive patient care functions, which resulted from the redesigned work process.

Providing EPO for a hemoglobin level of more than 10 to 11 g/dl had a cost-effectiveness higher than that of doing so for other hemoglobin levels. This finding will be put forward to the policy level to set up the EPO treatment guideline of the hospital for hemodialysis patients.

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This study aimed to compare the EuroQol 5-dimension 5-level questionnaire (EQ-5D-5L), the visual analogue scale (VAS), and the Kidney Disease Quality of Life 36-Item Short-Form Survey (KDQOL-36) scores of Thai continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) and automated peritoneal dialysis (APD) patients and to compare the utility scores with the EQ-5D-5L and VAS scores of caregivers.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study completed between April 2016 and May 2017. In total, 34 CAPD patients, 30 APD patients, and their caregivers were recruited from a large university hospital in Thailand. A trained interviewer conducted face-to-face interviews. We collected demographic data and used the KDQOL-36 and EuroQol questionnaires (EQ-5D-5L and VAS) to assess the health-related quality of life. Caregivers were asked to assess their own health status using the EQ-5D-5L and VAS. Results:The EQ-5D-5L and VAS responses of the CAPD and APD patients and their caregivers were not significantly different (P . .05). More than 50% of both patient groups had mobility problems, whereas most patients had no problems with selfcare, doing usual activities, pain or discomfort, and anxiety or depression. As for the KDQOL-36, the physical and mental component summaries were not significantly different, and neither were the scores for all of the kidney disease-specific dimensions, including symptoms or problems, effects of kidney disease, and burden of kidney disease (all were P . .05). Conclusions:The results indicated that the quality of life of CAPD and APD patients and their caregivers were mostly equivalent. A further longitudinal study of utility score assessments of the differences in modality would be advantageous.

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