Table 1.

Socio-demographic, clinical and economic characteristics of CKD patients by stages 4 and 5 pre-dialyses

	CKD stage 4		CKD stage 5		Overall		p
Gender ( n , %)
Male	177	63.4 %	126	61.5 %	303	62.6 %	0.657c
Female	102	36.6 %	79	38.5 %	181	37.4 %
Age (years) at enrollment
Median, IQR	75.5	67.7–82.2	73.1	65.7–80.4	74.5	66.7–81.5	0.063d
e-GFR (MDRD)
Median, IQR	20	17–23	11	9–13	16	12–21	0.000d
Comorbidity ( n , %)
No	11	3.9 %	12	5.6 %	23	4.8 %	0.329c
Yes	268	96.1 %	193	94.2 %	461	95.3 %
Cardiovascular disease ( n , %)
No	145	52.0 %	125	61.0 %	270	55.8 %	0.049c
Yes	134	48.0 %	80	39.0 %	214	44.2 %
Diabetes mellitus ( n , %)
No	181	64.9 %	132	64.4 %	313	64.7 %	0.912c
Yes	98	35.1 %	73	35.6 %	171	35.3 %
Civil status ( n , %)
Single	20	7.2 %	9	4.4 %	29	6.0 %	0.155c
Cohabitation/married	179	64.2 %	148	72.2 %	327	67.6 %
Separated/divorced/widower	79	28.3 %	48	23.4 %	127	26.2 %
Education ( n , %)
No qualification	16	5.7 %	5	2.4 %	21	4.3 %	0.028c
Primary degree	148	53.1 %	91	44.4 %	239	49.4 %
Secondary degreea	101	36.2 %	100	48.8 %	201	41.5 %
University degreeb	11	3.9 %	7	3.4 %	18	3.7 %
Working condition ( n , %)
Worker	22	7.9 %	29	14.2 %	51	10.5 %	0.064c
Out of work (unemployed)	2	0.7 %	4	2.0 %	6	1.2 %
Student	1	0.4 %	0	0.0 %	1	0.2 %
Housewife	16	5.7 %	15	7.3 %	31	6.4 %
Retiree	238	85.3 %	157	76.6 %	395	81.6 %
Number of working hours lost per worker patient/year
Median, IQR	84	16–320	86	12–320	86	16–320	0.977d
Kind of transport used by patient to get to the Center ( n , %)
Health transport (ambulance/social welfare services)	22	7.9 %	14	6.8 %	36	7.4 %	0.667c
Non health (private/public) transport	255	91.4 %	189	92.2 %	444	91.7 %
Need of caregiver ( n , %)
No	93	33.3 %	64	31.2 %	157	32.4 %	0.630c
Yes	185	66.3 %	140	68.3 %	325	67.2 %
Number of hours lost by caregiver per patient/year
Mean, ±SD	160.4	±113.9	165.4	±112.1	162.5	±113.1	0.630e
Need of domestic help due to the disease ( n , %)
No	173	62.0 %	126	61.5 %	299	61.8 %	0.864c
Yes	105	37.6 %	79	38.5 %	184	38.0 %
Number of hours required for domestic help per week
Mean, ±SD	5.8	±11.0	5.2	±10.1	5.5	±10.6	0.545e
Patients consuming low-protein special food ( n , %)
No	77	27.6 %	26	12.7 %	103	21.3 %	0.000c
Yes	198	71.0 %	176	85.9 %	374	77.3 %
Overall ( n , %)	279	100.0 %	205	100.0 %	484	100.0 %

Discrepancies in totals are due to missing values

CKD chronic kidney disease, GFR glomerular filtration rate, MDRD Modification of Diet in Renal Disease, IQR inter-quartile range, SD standard deviation

^aPrimary degree refers to the “Licenza elementare” in Italy

^bSecondary degree refers to the lower secondary degree “Diploma di scuola media inferiore” and to upper secondary degree “Diploma di scuola media superiore” (i.e. high school diploma) in Italy

^cPearson X ² test

^dTwo-sample Wilcoxon rank-sum (Mann–Whitney) test

^eTwo-sample t test