Disparities in pre-dialysis treatment have worsened over time

Getting patients with kidney disease timely care before they have to be on dialysis has shown to improve survival, but new research finds that non-white patients are less likely to get appropriate care before dialysis than white patients. Looking at data from a cohort of more than 310,000 individuals who had at least a year of treatment for kidney disease before going on dialysis, scientists found that between 2005-2007, Black, Hispanic, and Asian patients were between 16%-33% less likely to get a year or more of pre-dialysis treatment compared to white patients. Those odds worsened for Black and Hispanic individuals a decade later, as they were then 24%-39% less likely to receive at least a year of pre-dialysis kidney treatment. Asian patients, however, were now 10% less likely than white patients to not get pre-dialysis care.