PAPER DETAILS

BACKGROUND
Although chronic kidney disease (CKD) is associated with various outcomes, the burden of each condition for hospital admission is unknown.

AIM
To quantify the association between CKD and cause-specific hospitalisation.

DESIGN AND SETTING
A matched cohort study in primary care using Clinical Practice Research Datalink linked to Hospital Episode Statistics in England.

METHOD
Patients with CKD (estimated glomerular filtration rate <60 mL/min/1.73 m for ≥3 months) and a comparison group of patients without known CKD (matched for age, sex, GP, and calendar time) were identified, 2004-2014. Outcomes were hospitalisations with 10 common conditions as the primary admission diagnosis: heart failure; urinary tract infection; pneumonia; acute kidney injury (AKI); myocardial infarction; cerebral infarction; gastrointestinal bleeding; hip fracture; venous thromboembolism; and intracranial bleeding. A difference in the incidence rate of first hospitalisation for each condition was estimated between matched patients with and without CKD. Multivariable Cox regression was used to estimate a relative risk for each outcome.

RESULTS
In a cohort of 242 349 pairs of patients, with and without CKD, the rate difference was largest for heart failure at 6.6/1000 person-years (9.7/1000 versus 3.1/1000 person-years in patients with and without CKD, respectively), followed by urinary tract infection at 5.2, pneumonia at 4.4, and AKI at 4.1/1000 person-years. The relative risk was highest for AKI with a fully adjusted hazard ratio of 4.90, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 4.47 to 5.38, followed by heart failure with 1.66, 95% CI = 1.59 to 1.75.

CONCLUSION
Hospitalisations for heart failure, infection, and AKI showed strong associations with CKD in absolute and(or) relative terms, suggesting targets for improved preventive care.