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Table 1 Study population: characteristics of ESRD patients by dialysis discontinuation status prior to death (1995–2009)

From: Regional variation in care at the end of life: discontinuation of dialysis

Variable

All patients

Patients with discontinuation of dialysis

Patients without discontinuation of dialysis

No. of patients

715,605

176,021

539,584

Age at dialysis onset, mean (SD)

66.7 (11.92)

70.1 (11.20)

65.6 (11.94)

Age at death, mean (SD)

70.0 (11.34)

73.2 (10.65)

69.0 (11.37)

Age at death, n (%)

   

40 – 59

140,670 (19.7)

21,133 (12.0)

119,537 (22.2)

60 – 69

179,489 (25.1)

36,937 (21.0)

142,552 (26.4)

70 – 79

235,667 (32.9)

63,532 (36.1)

172,135 (31.9)

80+

159,779 (22.3)

54,419 (30.9)

105,360 (19.5)

Male sex, n (%)

374,605 (52.3)

86,301 (49.0)

288,304 (53.4)

Race, n (%)

   

White

468,979 (65.5)

138,203 (78.5)

330,776 (61.3)

Black

212,576 (29.7)

31,290 (17.8)

181,286 (33.6)

Asian

20,459 (2.9)

3,713 (2.1)

16,746 (3.1)

American Indian

9,479 (1.3)

2,168 (1.2)

7,311 (1.4)

Other

4,112 (0.6)

647 (0.4)

3,465 (0.6)

Location,* n (%)

   

Urban

562,156 (78.6)

133,957 (76.1)

428,199 (79.4)

Large rural city/town

74,316 (10.4)

20,758 (11.8)

53,558 (9.9)

Small rural town

46,060 (6.4)

12,105 (6.9)

33,955 (6.3)

Isolated small rural town

33,073 (4.6)

9,201 (5.2)

23,872 (4.4)

Hemodialysis,** n (%)

672,623 (94.0)

166,308 (94.5)

506,315 (93.8)

Years on dialysis, mean (SD)

3.2 (2.90)

3.0 (2.77)

3.3 (2.94)

Years on dialysis, median (Q1, Q3)

2.4 (1.1, 4.5)

2.2 (0.9, 4.2)

2.5 (1.1, 4.6)

  1. All of the differences between dialysis discontinuation groups are statistically significant at p < 0.001.
  2. *ESRD patient residence based on RUCA codes (zip code approximation of Census tracks).
  3. **Last treatment modality recorded prior to death.
  4. ESRD = End Stage Renal Disease; SD=Standard Deviation; RUCA = Rural Urban Commuting Areas; Q1 and Q3 = first and third quartiles.