Seasonal variations in cause-specific mortality and transition to renal replacement therapy among patients with end-stage renal disease

Abstract

Despite some studies showing seasonal variations in mortality and the transition to renal replacement therapy in patients with end-stage renal disease, detailed evidence is still scarce. We investigated seasonal variations in patients with end-stage renal disease using a large Japanese database for dialysis patients. We compared the fractions of all-cause and cause-specific mortality and the transition to renal replacement therapy among seasons and performed a mixed-effects Poisson regression analysis to compare the mortality among seasons after adjustment for some variables. The initiation of hemodialysis was highest in winter and lowest in summer. Seasonality in the initiation of peritoneal dialysis and transition to kidney transplantation differed from hemodialysis. All-cause mortality was highest in the winter and lowest in the summer. Death from coronary artery disease, heart failure, cerebral hemorrhage, and infectious pneumonia had similar seasonality, but death from cerebral infarction, septicemia, or malignant tumor did not have similar seasonality. In conclusion, the initiation of hemodialysis, all-cause mortality, and mortality from coronary heart disease, heart failure, cerebral hemorrhage, and infectious pneumonia were significantly highest in winter and lowest in summer. However, the initiation of peritoneal dialysis, transition to kidney transplantation, or mortality from cerebral infarction, septicemia, or malignant tumor did not have similar seasonal variations.

COVID-19 Risk Factors and Mortality Outcomes Among Medicare Patients Receiving Long-term Dialysis

“…Annual trends in 2013 to 2019 display a well-known seasonal pattern, with peaks in late January and early February. 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 Beginning in 2020, deviations from this trend were commensurate with known waves of the COVID-19 pandemic ( Figure 1 A). Historically, Black patients receiving dialysis have had significantly lower mortality than non-Black patients in the US.…”

Relationship between the Number of Deaths Due to Renal Failure and Air Temperature Parameters in Hokkaido and Okinawa Prefectures, Japan

“…Iseki et al reported a strong correlation between the transition for hemodialysis and ambient air temperature in patients with chronic renal failure in Okinawa, Japan [11]. Goto et al also found that the initiation of hemodialysis was the highest in winter and the lowest in summer [12].…”

“…Many factors have been reported to affect renal failure [4][5][6][7]. Environmental factors, such as air temperature parameters, have been associated with the number of deaths due to renal failure [8][9][10][11][12].…”

Biomimetics provides lessons from nature for contemporary ways to improve human health

“…In contrast to the superior mechanisms that have developed during evolution to protect hibernating bears from the dramatic physiological transitions that occur between periods of high and low metabolic activity, other seasonal mammals, such as lemurs, are at higher risk, when the number of seasonal transitions increased in frequency [45]. Such studies may be of relevance for climate-induced seasonal shift and increase reasons for seasonal variation in mortality observed in burden of lifestyle diseases, such as CKD [46] and stroke [47].…”