Association of Kidney Disease Quality of Life (KDQOL-36) with mortality and hospitalization in older adults receiving hemodialysis

BACKGROUND: For older adults receiving dialysis, health-related quality of life is not often considered in prognostication of death or future hospitalizations. To determine if routine health-related quality of life measures may be useful for prognostication, the objective of this study is to determine the extent of association of Kidney Disease Quality of Life (KDQOL-36) subscales with adverse outcomes in older adults receiving dialysis. METHODS: This is a longitudinal study of 3500 adults aged ≥75 years receiving dialysis in the United States in 2012 and 2013. We used Cox and Fine and Gray models to evaluate the association of KDQOL-36 subscales with risk of death and hospitalization. We adjusted for sociodemographic variables, hemodialysis access type, laboratory values, and Charlson index. RESULTS: Three thousand one hundred thirty-two hemodialysis patients completed the KDQOL-36. From KDQOL-36 completion date in 2012, 880 (28.1%) died and 2023 (64.6%) had at least one hospitalization over a median follow-up of 512 and 203 days, respectively. Cohort members with a SF-12 physical component summary (PCS) in the lowest quintile had an increased adjusted risk of death [hazard ratio (HR), 1.55, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.19–2.03] and hospitalization (HR, 1.29, 95% CI 1.09–1.54) compared with those with scores in the highest quintile. Cohort members with a SF-12 mental component summary in the lowest quintile had an increased risk of hospitalization (HR, 1.39, 95% CI 1.17–1.65) compared with those in the highest quintile. In adjusted analyses, there was no association between the symptoms of kidney disease, effects of kidney disease, and burden of kidney disease subscales with time to death or first hospitalization. Competing risk models showed similar HRs. CONCLUSIONS: Among the KDQOL-36 subscales, the SF-12 PCS demonstrates the strongest association with both death and future hospitalizations in older adults receiving hemodialysis Further research is needed to assess the value this subscale may add to prognostication. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12882-017-0801-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.