The three-year incidence of major hemorrhage among older adults initiating chronic dialysis

Table 1 Baseline characteristics of patients initiating chronic dialysis in Ontario, Canada from 1998 to 2008

		Era, year of dialysis initiation				Patient age, years
Characteristics	Total	1998-2001	2002-2005	2006-2008	p-value	65-74	75-84	≥85	p-value
	n = 11,173	n = 3,837	n = 4,231	n = 3,105
Age, mean ± SD	75.8 ± 6.2	74.8 ± 5.8	76.1 ± 6.2	76.5 ± 6.43	<0.001
Women,%	42.3	42.3	42.0	42.6	0.873	41.6	42.5	44.2	0.286
Race,%
Caucasian	77.0	70.0	80.7	80.7	<0.001	73.9	79.4	80.5	<0.001
East Asian	6.2	6.6	6.1	5.8		5.9	6.2	7.6
South Asian	3.0	2.6	3.1	3.5		4.1	2.4	0.7
Aboriginal	1.1	1.1	1.0	1.2		1.7	0.6	0.4
Other	4.9	4.4	5.1	5.1		6.2	3.8	3.5
Unknown	7.9	15.5	4.0	3.6		8.1	7.7	7.4
Modality,%
Hemodialysis	81.4	78.5	82.3	80.4	<0.001	77.6	82.8	83.4	<0.001
Peritoneal dialysis	19.5	21.5	17.7	19.6		22.4	17.2	16.6
*Medication,%**
Clopidogrel	4.5	0.5	5.6	8.0	<0.001	4.3	4.7	4.8	0.571
Warfarin	12.2	11.8	11.9	13.3	0.098	10.6	13.5	13.9	<0.001
Co-morbidity,%
Atrial fibrillation	14.7	14.0	15.3	14.9	0.258	12.2	16.6	17.8	<0.001
Stroke	5.0	5.8	5.0	4.0	0.003	5.2	4.9	4.5	0.514
Prior Major hemorrhage	10.1	8.9	10.1	11.7	<0.001	10.0	9.8	12.4	0.039
Acute coronary syndrome	13.6	12.7	14.7	13.2	0.026	1.8	2.1	1.8	0.588
Deep vein thrombosis & pulmonary embolism	1.9	1.8	1.8	2.3	0.202	1.8	2.1	1.8	0.588
Mechanical heart valve	1.3	0.9	1.4	1.5	0.022	1.5	1.2	0.3	0.009
Modified Charlson Co-morbidity Indexǂ,%
2	27.4	27.7	26.7	28.0	<0.001	26.8	27.5	30.2	<0.001
3	13.9	17.5	12.9	10.9		12.2	14.7	18.2
4	19.0	20.1	17.3	19.9		18.6	19.0	20.9
≥5	39.7	34.7	43.0	41.2		42.4	38.8	30.6

*Medication was based on evidence of medication prescription at dialysis initiation.
ǂ We used a modified Charlson Index that gave each individual on dialysis an automatic two-points for moderate-to-severe kidney disease.

ISSN: 2054-3581