Objectives/Introduction
Demand for nursing home (NH) care by patients with endstage renal disease (ESRD) is likely to increase with growing numbers of older adults initiating chronic dialysis. We completed a systematic review to summarize the literature on NH residents with ESRD.
Methods
MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, and relevant conference proceedings were searched to identify articles using the following MESH terms or related key words in the title or abstract: “residential facilities”, “renal dialysis”, “renal replacement therapy”, and “chronic kidney failure”. We selected case control, cohort studies, and clinical trials that included older adults with ESRD (defined as those receiving chronic dialysis or those with Stage 5 chronic kidney disease (CKD)) living in residential care facilities. We abstracted information on study design, quality, and results.
Results
Of 198 unique citations identified by the search strategy, 14 articles met eligibility criteria. The majority of articles were multicenter studies that were conducted in the 1990s. One study focused on patients with Stage 5 CKD, and the remaining thirteen studies focused on chronic dialysis patients of which eight studies included only peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients, four studies included both PD and hemodialysis (HD) patients, and one study included only HD patients. All studies were observational, no clinical trials were identified, and study design limitations and heterogeneity within study populations were common. Summarizing results across these studies suggests that NH residents with ESRD have limited survival, particularly early after dialysis initiation. Functional impairment is highly prevalent in this population and independently associated with poor outcomes.
Conclusions
NH residents with ESRD appear to be a particularly vulnerable population, but current information on their prevalence, characteristics, and outcomes is limited. Further research is needed to provide a better understanding of modifiable predictors of survival and functional decline in this population.