American Journal of Kidney Diseases
Volume 51, Issue 5 , Pages 811-818 , May 2008

Educational Level as a Determinant of Access to and Outcomes After Kidney Transplantation in the United States

  • Elke S. Schaeffner, MD, MSc

      Affiliations

    • Department of Medicine, Charité Campus Virchow, Berlin, Germany
    • ,
  • Jyotsna Mehta, MS

      Affiliations

    • Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
    • ,
  • Wolfgang C. Winkelmayer, MD, ScD

      Affiliations

    • Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
    • Department of Medicine, Renal Division, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
    • Corresponding Author InformationAddress correspondence to Wolfgang C. Winkelmayer, MD, ScD, Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 1620 Tremont St, Ste 3030, Boston, MA 02120.

Received 20 August 2007 ,Accepted 16 January 2008.

References 

  1. US Renal Data System. USRDS 2003 Annual Data Report. Bethesda, MD: The National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases; 2003;
  2. Jager KJ, van Dijk P. Annual Report, 40th ERA-EDTA Congress, Berlin. http://www.era-edta-reg.org/files/presentations/pdf/berlin-Jager-AnnualReport03.pdfAccessed June 17, 2006
  3. Wolfe RA, Ashby VB, Milford EL, et al. Comparison of mortality in all patients on dialysis, patients on dialysis awaiting transplantation, and recipients of a first cadaveric transplant. N Engl J Med. 1999;341:1725–1730
  4. Cameron JI, Whiteside C, Katz J, et al. Differences in quality of life across renal replacement therapies: A meta-analytic comparison. Am J Kidney Dis. 2000;35:629–637
  5. Winkelmayer WC, Weinstein MC, Mittleman MA, et al. Health economic evaluations: The special case of end-stage renal disease treatment. Med Decis Making. 2002;22:417–430
  6. Churak JM. Racial and ethnic disparities in renal transplantation. J Natl Med Assoc. 2005;97:153–160
  7. Soucie JM, Neylan JF, McClellan W. Race and sex differences in the identification of candidates for renal transplantation. Am J Kidney Dis. 1992;19:414–419
  8. Bloembergen WE, Mauger EA, Wolfe RA, et al. Association of gender and access to cadaveric renal transplantation. Am J Kidney Dis. 1997;30:733–738
  9. Winkelmayer WC, Mehta J, Chandraker A, et al. Predialysis nephrologist care and access to kidney transplantation in the United States. Am J Transplant. 2007;7:872–879
  10. Winkelmayer WC, Glynn RJ, Levin R, et al. Late nephrologist referral and access to renal transplantation. Transplantation. 2002;73:1918–1923
  11. Garg PP, Diener-West M, Powe NR. Income-based disparities in outcomes for patients with chronic kidney disease. Semin Nephrol. 2001;21:377–385
  12. Press R, Carrasquillo O, Nickolas T, et al. Race/ethnicity, poverty status, and renal transplant outcomes. Transplantation. 2005;80:917–924
  13. Wolfe RA, Ashby VB, Milford EL, et al. Differences in access to cadaveric renal transplantation in the United States. Am J Kidney Dis. 2000;36:1025–1033
  14. Alexander GC, Sehgal AR. Barriers to cadaveric renal transplantation among blacks, women, and the poor. JAMA. 1998;280:1148–1152
  15. Gaylin DS, Held PJ, Port FK, et al. The impact of comorbid and sociodemographic factors on access to renal transplantation. JAMA. 1993;269:603–608
  16. Tonelli M, Klarenbach S, Manns B, et al. Residence location and likelihood of kidney transplantation. CMAJ. 2006;175:478–482
  17. Garg PP, Frick KD, Diener-West M, et al. Effect of the ownership of dialysis facilities on patients' survival and referral for transplantation. N Engl J Med. 1999;341:1653–1660
  18. Satayathum S, Pisoni RL, McCullough KP, et al. Kidney transplantation and wait-listing rates from the international Dialysis Outcomes and Practice Patterns Study (DOPPS). Kidney Int. 2005;68:330–337
  19. Kasiske BL, London W, Ellison MD. Race and socioeconomic factors influencing early placement on the kidney transplant waiting list. J Am Soc Nephrol. 1998;9:2142–2147
  20. Epstein AM, Ayanian JZ, Keogh JH, et al. Racial disparities in access to renal transplantation—Clinically appropriate or due to underuse or overuse?. N Engl J Med. 2000;343:1537–1545
  21. Bayat S, Frimat L, Thilly N, et al. Medical and non-medical determinants of access to renal transplant waiting list in a French community-based network of care. Nephrol Dial Transplant. 2006;21:2900–2907
  22. Furth SL, Garg PP, Neu AM, et al. Racial differences in access to the kidney transplant waiting list for children and adolescents with end-stage renal disease. Pediatrics. 2000;106:756–761
  23. Kasiske BL, Ramos EL, Gaston RS, et al. The evaluation of renal transplant candidates: Clinical practice guidelines (Patient Care and Education Committee of the American Society of Transplant Physicians). J Am Soc Nephrol. 1995;6:1–34
  24. Schulman KA, Berlin JA, Harless W, et al. The effect of race and sex on physicians' recommendations for cardiac catheterization. N Engl J Med. 1999;340:618–626
  25. Eckhoff DE, Young CJ, Gaston RS, et al. Racial disparities in renal allograft survival: A public health issue?. J Am Coll Surg. 2007;204:894–902discussion, 902-903

 Originally published online as doi:10.1053/j.ajkd.2008.01.019 on April 2, 2008.Because an author of this manuscript is an editor for AJKD, the peer-review and decision-making processes were handled entirely by an Associate Editor (Donald Hricik, MD, University Hospitals of Cleveland) who served as Acting Editor-in-Chief. Details of the journal's procedures for potential editor conflicts are given in the Editorial Policies section of the AJKD website.

PII: S0272-6386(08)00161-3

doi: 10.1053/j.ajkd.2008.01.019

American Journal of Kidney Diseases
Volume 51, Issue 5 , Pages 811-818 , May 2008

Article Tools