2021 Volume 54 Issue 2 Pages 77-88
Increasing numbers of patients are having difficulty travelling to dialysis facilities due to problems performing activities of daily living. We performed a survey of the transportation patients use to visit dialysis facilities in Aichi Prefecture. We collected questionnaires from most dialysis facilities（178/184 facilities）and obtained data for 17,680 patients. There were 7,348 patients（42％）who needed to be picked up/dropped off using cars owned by dialysis facilities, and 7,071 patients travelled to dialysis facilities in cars they owned. Among patients aged ≤70 years old, more patients used their own cars than used cars owned by dialysis facilities. Patients that lived with their families mainly used their own cars to visit dialysis facilities（46.7％）, followed by cars owned by the facilities（41.5％）. However, patients who lived alone were mainly transported to dialysis facilities in cars the facilities owned（45.6％）. In conclusion, a large proportion of the dialysis patients in Aichi Prefecture used cars owned by dialysis facilities to visit such facilities. Age and residential status might influence the transportation patients use to visit such facilities.
