BACKGROUND: The objective of this cross-sectional study in a population of 1472 dialysis patients was to identify the main factors involved in the choice of a specific option for dialysis therapy, taking into account three different types of criteria such as medical dependence (DM), nurse care requirement (SI) and independence for dialysis therapy (CA). METHODS: Each patient has been analysed, independently of present treatment modality, according to the above three criteria, namely DM, SI and CA. For each type of parameter, patients have been allocated to one of three levels, each level being established to evaluate whether dialytic treatment should be undertaken as hospital centre dialysis (HDC) or in a facility off the hospital. Level 3 of any one category corresponded to the inability of doing haemodialysis at home (HHD) or in self-care unit (AD). Level 2 included patients who could be treated in AD or by peritoneal dialysis (PD) with the assistance of a nurse. CAPD or HHD were considered as potential treatment modalities only in patients qualifying for level 1 of each criterion. RESULTS: In the patient population as a whole, the following treatment options were observed: HHD 3.6%, CAPD 6%, PD 1.8%, AD 16.3% and HDC 72.2%. For medical dependence (DM) there was a relatively even distribution for the three levels in six centres. In contrast, two centres were characterized by a predominance of DM level 3. Differences in DM levels between centres were greatly reduced when considering separately only those patients who were actually treated by CAPD, HDC and AD. SI levels were more uniformly distributed within all centres, and this was true for HCD and AD patients. When considering CA levels in HDC patients, a large predominance of CA level 3 was observed in all centres whereas CA level 1 was nearly in existent. CONCLUSION: The major finding of this study was that the inability or the refusal of dialysis patients to participate at treatment, independently of medical condition and nurse care requirement, was the main factor in the choice of hospital centre dialysis.