ASN's Mission

To create a world without kidney diseases, the ASN Alliance for Kidney Health elevates care by educating and informing, driving breakthroughs and innovation, and advocating for policies that create transformative changes in kidney medicine throughout the world.

learn more

Contact ASN

1401 H St, NW, Ste 900, Washington, DC 20005

email@asn-online.org

202-640-4660

The Latest on X

Kidney Week

ASN / Education & Meetings / Kidney Week /

Please note that you are viewing an archived section from 2021 and some content may be unavailable. To unlock all content for 2021, please visit the archives.

Abstract: PO0085

Analysis of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Home and In-Center Dialysis Populations

Session Information

Category: Coronavirus (COVID-19)

  • 000 Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Authors

  • Cherif, Alhaji, Renal Research Institute, New York, New York, United States
  • Wang, Yuedong, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, United States
  • Lasky, Rachel, Fresenius Medical Care North America, Waltham, Massachusetts, United States
  • Willetts, Joanna, Fresenius Medical Care North America, Waltham, Massachusetts, United States
  • Usvyat, Len A., Fresenius Medical Care North America, Waltham, Massachusetts, United States
  • Kotanko, Peter, Renal Research Institute, New York, New York, United States
Background

While dialysis patients have a high risk of complications from COVID-19, in-center hemodialysis (ICHD) patients show lower SARS-CoV-2 reproduction rates when compared to the general population (Cherif, JASN 2021), possibly related to lifestyle and interventions to prevent SARS-CoV-2 spread. Here we expand the research to study the prevalence of COVID-19 in both home (PD/HHD) and ICHD patients.

Methods

We analyzed COVID-19 cases in PD/HHD and ICHD patients from the U.S. Fresenius Kidney Care (FKC) network, from March 1 to November 27, 2020. Patients were tested for SARS-CoV-2 (confirmed by RT-PCR) when showing signs compatible with COVID-19 or exposed to an infected person. We perform statistical analysis for inter-/intra-modalities, with continuous and categorical variables being expressed as the mean (standard deviation) and absolute (relative, %), respectively.

Results

We studied 263,223 patients (age 62.8±14.5 years, 57.7% males) receiving dialysis in the FKC network (87.3% ICHD; 12.7% PD/HHD). In the FKC network, 21,175 (8.05%) were infected with SARS-CoV-2. COVID-19 infection was more prevalent among ICHD (8.56%) vs. PD/HHD (4.49%) patients. Black had a significantly higher risk than other races for both ICHD (9.10%, p < 0.0001) and PD/HHD (5.13%, p = 0.0038), without a difference between modalities (p = 0.1827). While white ICHD patients did not have a different risk compared to others (8.52%, p = 0.4105), they had a smaller risk when dialyzed at home PD/HHD (3.82%, p < 0.0001), and the difference between ICHD and PD/HHD was significant (p < 0.0001). Similar results are shown for other patients (Tab.1).

Conclusion

COVID-19 infection was more common among ICHD patients. To what extent this is related to lifestyle, travel to dialysis facilities or other aspects warrants further analyses.

Funding

  • NIDDK Support