(Ivanhoe Newswire) – Among kidney failure patients on dialysis in the U.S., black people live longer than white people.  According to a recent study, complex socioeconomic and residential factors may account for survival differences.   

 

Dr. Paul Kimmel, MD, and his team at the National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, examined links between income inequality and residence with Black and White kidney failure patients’ survival.  

 

Their study merged U.S. Renal Data System information on kidney failure patients who started dialysis from 2000 to 2008 with the Census Bureau Black and White race-specific average household income.  The analysis involved 589,036 patients.  The average household income for Black patients were $26,742 and for White patients was $41,922. 

 

Their results showed that black kidney failure patients with lower incomes have longer survival than whites, but blacks experience greater mortality as residential segregation increases.  The findings also reveal that black kidney failure patients on dialysis are susceptible to incline in income and residential segregation.   

 

"Unknown factors such as socioeconomic issues and neighborhood characteristics may affect differential survival for black kidney failure patients. Lower access to inexpensive, nutritional foods and quality dialysis physicians and facilities, as well as living environments which are unsafe or predispose to physical inactivity could play roles and need to be evaluated,” Dr. Kimmel was quoted as saying. 

 

SOURCE:  Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, January 2013

 

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