Search results

Late nephrology referral, a problem currently identified across many high income countries, has been associated with reduced opportunities for delaying or halting the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD), delayed dialysis initiation, reduced choice in treatment modality, increased morbidity and hospitalization, and premature death. Despite a recent finding that the progression of CKD nearly always presents warning signs, and despite the fact that all Canadians are entitled to receive medically necessary health care free at the point of patient entry, each year in the province of British Columbia (BC) a substantial number of people with CKD experience late or no referral to nephrology care prior to requiring renal replacement therapy. A subset of these CKD patients experience no referral and “crash” onto dialysis (experience an acute or emergent start). Existing research has not fully explored the range of potential health determinants that may affect the timing of nephrology referral. This paper adopts a “determinants of health” framework and assesses the impact of a variety of indicators on patients’ physical health, demographics, socioeconomic status, social support, geographic and health system characteristics. Using a late referral definition of <3 months and data on BC patients who began dialysis between April 2000 and March 2003, multiple regression analysis indicates that the following determinants have an independent effect on the timing of referral: cause of end-stage renal disease (p=<0.0001); age (p=<0.0001); race/ethnicity (p=0.0019); English ability (p=0.0158); marital status (p=0.0202); proximity to care (p=0.0118); and, “age by first language” (p=0.0244).