Since 1981, the National CAPD Registry, sponsored by the National Institute of Arthritis, Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health, has been systematically collecting demographic and follow-up data on patients receiving continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) as maintenance therapy for end-stage renal disease. Using life-table methods, this study has identified the association of diabetic glomerulosclerosis with age over 60 or under 20 years as factors jointly relevant in predicting peritonitis, hospitalization, or death. In addition, these outcomes were more likely to occur if patients were black and had been exposed to other dialytic therapy earlier on. The latter two were the only factors jointly predictive of transfer from CAPD onto hemodialysis. Careful monitoring of patients with the above mentioned characteristics may reduce complications, and lead to greater success with this increasingly popular dialysis modality.