[Assessment of competence of predialysis chronic kidney disease stage 5 patients to make treatment decisions: preliminary report].

The competence to consent to treatment of 26 adults with stage 5 predialysis chronic kidney disease (CKD) (16 males, 10 females, age; 58 +/- 11 years, creatinine clearance; 10.1 +/- 3.9 mL/min)was assessed using two kinds of format: the MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool-Treatment (MacCAT-T) and mini-mental-state examination (MMSE). The MacCAT-T revealed poor ability for understanding(3.72 +/- 1.11 points; perfect score, 6 points), appreciating (2.88 +/- 0.88 points; perfect score, 4 points)and reasoning(4.30 +/- 2.11 points; perfect score, 8 points). The MMSE revealed poor performance on the attentional task. The level of attentional deficit was significantly related to both poor ability for understanding and reasoning (r = 0.432, p = 0.031 and r = 0.542, p = 0.014, respectively). These results suggest that the competence of predialysis CKD stage 5 patients to consent to treatment is impaired partly via an attentional deficit.