Table 2.

Multilevel model analysis of the unadjusted and adjusted variations at the patient, facility, and geographic levels for the level of eGFR at dialysis initiation

Model	Intraclass Correlation (%)	Variance Estimate	SEM	P Value
eGFR as a continuous variablea
Unadjusted
Patient	90.7	17.6	0.14	<0.001
Facility	6.6	1.3	0.28	<0.001
Geography	2.7	0.5	0.42	0.11
Fully adjusted
Patient	96.9	12.9	0.10	<0.001
Facility	3.1	0.4	0.09	<0.001
Geography	0.0	0.0	0.00	>0.99
eGFR≥10.5 ml/min per 1.73 m2a
Unadjusted
Patient	—	—	—	—
Facility	8.2	0.3	0.07	<0.001
Geography	2.6	0.1	0.09	0.26
Fully adjusted
Patient	—	—	—	—
Facility	4.5	0.2	0.04	<0.001
Geography	0.1	0.0	0.02	0.40
eGFR as a continuous variable and predialysis care>90 db
Unadjusted
Patient	88.2	16.0	0.15	<0.001
Facility	8.7	1.6	0.34	<0.001
Geography	3.1	0.6	0.48	0.12
Fully adjusted
Patient	95.7	11.9	0.11	<0.001
Facility	4.2	0.5	0.12	<0.001
Geography	0.2	0.0	0.07	0.38

The patient-level intraclass correlation was not calculated for the binary outcome to avoid a fixed value assumption. The fully adjusted model included the following covariates: facility-level factors (percentage catheter use, transplantation facility, peritoneal dialysis facility, average hemoglobin and phosphate, average distance that a patient resided from the nearest dialysis center, and number of patients), patient case mix (age, sex, body mass index, race, comorbidities, distance to facility, length of predialysis care, peritoneal dialysis, serum phosphate, albumin, and hemoglobin), and year.

^aGeographic regions, 12; facilities, 63; patients, 33,263. Median number of patients per facility=795 (interquartile range=532–1053).

^bGeographic regions, 14; facilities, 63; patients, 23,902. Median number of patients per facility=795 (interquartile range=532–963).