Table 1.
Patient characteristics of the study population
| Characteristic | Descriptive Statistics | |||
| All (n=27,123) | AVF (n=9881) | AVG (n=533) | CVC (n=16,709) | |
| Female sex, n (%) | 10,447 (39) | 3291 (33) | 289 (54) | 6867 (41) |
| Age (yr), mean (SD) | 60.4 (15.1) | 60.6 (14.2) | 62.1 (14.6) | 60.3 (15.7) |
| Race, n (%) | ||||
| White | 18,734 (69) | 7204 (73) | 433 (81) | 11,097 (66) |
| Asian | 2101 (8) | 725 (7) | 24 (5) | 1352 (8) |
| ATSI | 2523 (9) | 925 (9) | 31 (6) | 1567 (9) |
| Maori/Pacific Islanders | 3229 (12) | 827 (8) | 42 (8) | 2360 (14) |
| Other | 536 (2) | 200 (2) | 3 (0.6) | 333 (2) |
| BMI (kg/m 2 ), n (%) | ||||
| <18.5 | 839 (3) | 205 (2) | 15 (3) | 619 (4) |
| 18.5–24.9 | 8166 (30) | 2640 (27) | 158 (30) | 5638 (32) |
| 25–29.9 | 8445 (31) | 3144 (32) | 143 (27) | 5158 (31) |
| ≥30 | 9673 (36) | 3892 (39) | 217 (41) | 5564 (33) |
| Smoking status, n (%) | ||||
| Current | 3689 (14) | 1227 (12) | 63 (12) | 2399 (14) |
| Former | 11,281 (42) | 4229 (43) | 203 (38) | 6849 (41) |
| Never | 12,153 (45) | 4425 (45) | 267 (50) | 7461 (45) |
| Comorbid conditions, n (%) | ||||
| Diabetes mellitus | 13,402 (49) | 4672 (47) | 253 (48) | 8477 (50) |
| Peripheral vascular disease | 6861 (25) | 2810 (22) | 169 (32) | 4512 (27) |
| Coronary artery disease | 11,209 (41) | 3763 (38) | 235 (44) | 7211 (43) |
| Cerebrovascular disease | 4114 (15) | 1317 (13) | 100 (19) | 2697 (16) |
| Chronic lung disease | 4851 (18) | 1550 (16) | 98 (18) | 3203 (19) |
| Primary kidney disease, n (%) | ||||
| Diabetic nephropathy | 10,475 (39) | 3639 (37) | 194 (36) | 6642 (40) |
| GN | 5908 (22) | 2307 (23) | 81 (15) | 3520 (21) |
| Renovascular/hypertension | 3659 (14) | 1301 (13) | 85 (16) | 2273 (14) |
| Polycystic kidney disease | 1595 (6) | 932 (9) | 53 (10) | 610 (4) |
| Other | 5486 (20) | 1702 (17) | 120 (23) | 3664 (22) |
| Late nephrology referral, n (%) | 6364 (24) | 638 (7) | 52 (10) | 5674 (34) |
| Previous kidney replacement therapy, n (%) | 4239 (16) | 1353 (14) | 86 (16) | 2800 (17) |
| Duration of RRT (yr), median (IQR)a | 1.7 (0.7–3.5) | 2.0 (0.8–3.7) | 2.3 (0.9–4.6) | 1.6 (0.6–3.3) |
| HD modality at initiation, n (%) | ||||
| Home-based HD | 182 (0.7) | 160 (2) | 5 (0.9) | 17 (0.1) |
| Hospital-based HD | 25,024 (92) | 8447 (86) | 448 (84) | 16,129 (97) |
| Satellite-based HD | 1917 (7) | 1274 (13) | 80 (15) | 563 (3) |
AVF, arteriovenous fistula; AVG, arteriovenous graft; CVC, central venous catheter; ATSI, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander; BMI, body mass index; IQR, interquartile range; HD, hemodialysis.
a
For patients who had RRT (pre-emptive kidney transplant or peritoneal dialysis) before HD initiation (n=4239).