Randomized Controlled Trial on 3D Printed Assistive Device for Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis

The study will be conducted in the Renal Unit, Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH). All new CAPD patients using Ultrabag Peritoneal Dialysis (PD) system will be screened and invited to participate in this study by occupational therapist or nurse. Patients with cognitive impairment, psychiatric illness, acute illness that requires frequent hospital admissions (\>3 episodes with hospital stay over 1 week), or current adoption of other type of assistive device in CAPD bag exchange will be excluded. Eligible patients will be randomly allocated to either intervention group (using "Helping Hands") or control group. Participants in both arms will receive a standard 5-day CAPD training program and then perform a competency test for bag exchange conducted by an independent Advanced Practice Nurses. Irrespective of grouping, participants will receive brief phone interviews by clerks (who did not take the role as investigators) from the QEH Renal Unit with two sets of questionnaire measuring their health related conditions at 4 time points i) A0 (baseline); ii) A1 (last day of CAPD training); iii) A2 (4-month post-training follow-up); and iv) A3 (8-month post-training follow-up). Intervention group will receive additional training on using "Helping Hands" as assistive device in performing bag exchange and will have extra follow-up assessment at the 4th and 8th month post-training to ensure their competence in using "Helping Hands" device to perform CAPD exchanges. Relevant clinical data, such as peritonitis record, will be collected during their routine follow-up in the dialysis center or by clinical medical system. This is a non-inferiority study with the objective of establishing the safety and efficacy of "Helping hands" device for patients doing CAPD bag exchanges using UltraBag PD system. Primary outcome of the study is CAPD peritonitis rate and transfer set contamination rate between the two groups. The secondary outcomes are overall health conditions measured by two sets of standardized and reliable questionnaires: The short-form General Health Questionnaire (SF-36, Chinese version) and Depressive Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21, Chinese version). \[May refer to sessions of "Outcome measures" and "Eligibility" for details\]