Outcome Indicators for Home Parenteral Nutrition Care

Background and Aims: Patients receiving home parenteral nutrition (HPN) deserve a high-quality and patient-centered care. Patient-centered care can be delivered only if the patients priorities and concerns are known. Therefore, the aim is to identify the top 3 most important outcome indicators according to patients perspectives and the differences between several centers, HPN regimen, and HPN experience. Methods: A questionnaire, based on previously developed outcome indicators, was translated into the mother tongue using forward-backward translation and distributed to adult HPN patients with benign disease in March 2013. To identify differences, a Kruskal-Wallis or Mann-Whitney test was performed with GraphPad Prism (significance level <.05) when applicable. Results: Nine centers over 8 countries (300 patients) participated. The top 3 outcome indicators for patients were (1) incidence of catheter-related infection (CRI), (2) survival, and (3) quality of life (QoL). Between the participating centers, significant differences on rating were found for 5 outcome indicators (catheter obstruction,.015; weight,.002; energy,.010; fear, <.001; and independence,.010). The independence outcome indicator (.050) was considered less important for experienced (>2 years HPN) vs less experienced patients. For this outcome indicator, patients view also differed significantly based on number of HPN days per week (.0103). Conclusion: A cohort of HPN patients identified incidence of CRI, survival, and QoL as the most important outcome indicators for their care; however, there were significant differences between the participating centers. For one outcome indicator (independence), there were significant differences based on experience and regimen.