Association between Duration of Predialysis Care and Mortality after Dialysis Start
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Background and objectives Early nephrology referral is recommended for people with CKD on the basis of observational studies showing that longer nephrology care before dialysis start (predialysis care) is associated with lower mortality after dialysis start. This association may be observed because predialysis care truly reduces mortality or because healthier people with an uncomplicated course of disease will have both longer predialysis care and lower risk for death. We examined whether the survival benefit of longer predialysis care exists after accounting for the potential confounding effect of disease course that may also be affected by predialysis care. Design, setting, participants, & measurements We performed a retrospective cohort study and used data from 3152 adults with end stage kidney failure starting dialysis between 2004 and 2014 in five Canadian dialysis programs. We obtained duration of predialysis care from the earliest nephrology outpatient visit to dialysis start; markers of disease course, including inpatient or outpatient dialysis start and residual kidney function around dialysis start; and all-cause mortality after dialysis start. Results The percentages of participants with 0, 1–119, 120–364, and ≥365 days of predialysis care were 23%, 8%, 10%, and 59%, respectively. When we ignored markers of disease course as in previous studies, longer predialysis care was associated with lower mortality (hazard ratio 120–364 versus 0–119 days , 0.60; 95% confidence interval, 0.46 to 0.78]; hazard ratio ≥365 versus 0–119 days , 0.60; 95% confidence interval, 0.51 to 0.71; standard Cox model adjusted for demographics and laboratory and clinical characteristics). When we additionally accounted for markers of disease course using the inverse probability of treatment weighted Cox model, this association was weaker and no longer significant (hazard ratio 120–364 versus 0–119 days , 0.84; 95% confidence interval, 0.60 to 1.18; hazard ratio ≥365 versus 0–119 days , 0.88; 95% confidence interval, 0.69 to 1.13). Conclusions The association between longer predialysis care and lower mortality after dialysis start is weaker and imprecise after accounting for patients’ course of disease.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.005 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".