. 2021 Jan 6;22:9. doi: 10.1186/s12882-020-02206-9

Table 1.

Overview of geriatric assessment practices, from which participants were recruited, including geriatric testing methods

Practices	COPE study [15]	GOLD study [4]^b	Routine care pathway, University Medical Centre Groningen
Focus group number	1, 2	3, 4	5, 6
Type of practice	Prospective multicentre observational cohort study 4 year follow up	Prospective multicentre observational cohort study (cross-sectional geriatric assessment)	Routine care practice
Aim of geriatric assessment	Examine the severity of cognitive impairment in older patients reaching ESKD before dialysis and the rate of decline after dialysis or CCM initiation	Assess the association of geriatric measures between start of dialysis and after 6 months	Guide patients to the best treatment choice and to define supplementary care to optimize quality of life and reduction of illness-related symptoms
Population at inclusion	≥65 years, eGFR ≤20 ml/min/1.73m²	≥65 years, initiating dialysis or conservative kidney management	≥70 years (or younger if indicated), eGFR ≤20 ml/min/1.73m²
Measurements	Baseline: at inclusion Follow-up: yearly (four times), and after six months of start dialysis treatment	Baseline: within 4 weeks of initiating dialysis or 4 weeks after final decision to withhold Follow-up: after 6 months by phone	Yearly assessment divided over 2 or 3 visits
Conducted by	Nurse practitioner or geriatric nurse	Research nurse	Nurse practitioner
Duration	3 h	60–90 min	2 × 30 min
Location	Outpatient clinic	Home visit, follow-up by telephone	Outpatient clinic
Use of outcomes of assessment	For study purposes and discussed in multidisciplinary meeting and with patient, if necessary referred for geriatric consult	Collected for study purposes only, at home or in dialysis centre	Discussed in multidisciplinary meeting and with patient
Geriatric measures:
1. Functional status (ADL/ iADL)	GARS^a Lawton^a	Katz-6^a Lawton^a	Katz^a
2. Mobility	Gait speed^a Hand grip strength^a Short Physical Performance battery^a	Timed up and go Falls^a Four Test Balance Scale	Timed up and go^c Falls^c
3. Cognition	Mini Mental State Examination^a Clock drawing^a 15- WVLT^a Stroop Colour Word Test^a Trail making test (A&B)^a Visual Association Test^a Letter Digit Substitution Test^a Assessment of numeracy^a	Mini Mental State Examination Clock drawing Enhanced Cued Recall Semantic Fluency Test	MOCA^a
4. Mood	Geriatric Depression Scale^a	Geriatric Depression Scale	Geriatric Depression Scale^a
5. Nutritional status	Subjective Global Assessment or SNAQ^a	Mini-Nutritional Assessment	(anamnesis by dietician)^a
6. Comorbidity	Charlson Comorbidity Index^a	CIRS-G	(anamnesis)^a
7. Quality of Life^a	RAND-36^a	EuroQol-5	EuroQol-5D^a Visual Analogue Scale^a
8. Frailty	Fried frailty indicator^a	Groningen Frailty Index^a Fried Frailty Index (includes 4 m walking test and Handgrip strength)	Rockwood Clinical Frailty score ^c
9. Caregiver burden	EDIZ-plus^a	EDIZ^a	([hetro]anamnesis by social worker) ^a
10. Estimation of nephrologist		VAS: overall condition Surprise question	Surprise question ^c
11. Other	Cantril’s ladder, Pain score, Anxiety score Illness perceptions questionnaire^a	Additional subjective cognition tests (by caregiver): IDDD ^a IQCODE ^a Neuro-Psychological Inventory ^a	Outcome Prioritization Tool (treatment goals) ^a

ADL Activities of daily living; iADL Instrumental activities of daily living; GARS Groningen Activity Restriction Scale; 15-WVLT 15-Word Verbal Learning Test, immediate and delayed; SNAQ Short Nutritional Assessment Questionnaire; CIRS-G Cumulative illness rating scale for geriatrics; EDIZ ‘Ervaren Druk door Informele Zorg’ Self perceived burden from informal care; IDDD Interview of Deterioration in Daily life Dementia; IQCODE Informant Questionnaire on COgnitive DEcline.

^aReassessed measures at follow up, ^b Next to the study measures, two hospitals used additional instruments in routine care practice. St. Antonius hospital: a pre-dialysis decision making trajectory, including a home visit by a social worker and assessment of different domains (Katz, Lawton, MMSE, sometimes depression score (GDS), receiving care and living situation). Maasstad hospital: patients ≥70 years, if considered frail by nephrologist, are seen in a separate appointment with a nurse practitioner and assessed with multiple instruments (including: Katz ADL, Lawton iADL, Mini Mental State Examination, Geriatric Depression Scale, Charlson Comorbidity Index, Groningen Frailty Indicator, Timed up and go, Hand grip strength, fall risk, caregiver burden, wellbeing measurement) outcomes are discussed in MDTM and with the patient. ^cMeasures assessed at each visit to the outpatient clinic