Introduction:

The immigrant patient sometimes presents barriers that cause doubts about their inclusion in peritoneal dialysis.

Objective:

To analyse if being an immigrant influences the results of peritoneal dialysis.

Material and Method:

143 incident patients in peritoneal dialysis (years 2010-17). Demographic, clinical and prognostic data (poor outcome definition in peritoneal dialysis: peritonitis greater than half of the unit, transfer to haemodialysis in the first 6 months and mortality related to the technique).

Results:

Comparing immigrant and non-immigrant patients, differences were observed: age (42.4 vs 62.3 years, p<0.001), number of training sessions (7.5 vs 9.27, p=0.037), sex (61.1 vs. 25.2% women, p=0.002), economic level (44.4 vs. 13.7%, p=0.005), education (16.7 vs. 1.6%, p=0.004), employment situation (5.6 vs 61.3%, p<0.001) and degree of autonomy (38.9 vs 13.7% practically normal activity, p=0.031). No differences with respect to the prognostic data.

A 25.3% of patients present a poor result in peritoneal dialysis and the remaining patients a good result. Only significant differences between both groups were found in the number of training sessions (10 sessions vs 8.7 sessions, p=0.048).

The only factor that tends to be associated independently (multivariate analysis) to a poor result in peritoneal dialysis is the degree of functionality of the patient. No associations were found with being an immigrant patient or with other variables.

Conclusions:

Immigrant patients, in spite of the different sociodemographic conditions, have a similar outcome to non-immigrant patients in peritoneal dialysis.