CKD Care Programs and Incident Kidney Failure: A Study of a National Disease Management Program in Taiwan

RATIONALE & OBJECTIVE: Taiwan implemented national pay-for-performance programs for chronic kidney disease (CKD) care in 2006 and 2011; however, it is unknown whether this affected trends in maintenance dialysis. This study assessed the temporal trends in the incidence, prevalence, and mortality of individuals treated with maintenance dialysis from 2002-2016 in Taiwan. STUDY DESIGN: Follow-up study using Taiwan Renal Disease System Databases. SETTING & PARTICIPANTS: Participants who received dialysis for ≥90 days. PREDICTORS: Age, sex, and calendar year. OUTCOMES: Incidence, prevalence of maintenance dialysis, or death, ascertained using the National Death Registry database. ANALYTICAL APPROACH: The estimated annual percentage change was assessed by a generalized linear model, and the association of the programs with changes in the incidence of maintenance dialysis was evaluated using an age-period-cohort model. RESULTS: A total of 144,258 incident cases with a follow-up of 346 million person-years were analyzed during the observed periods. The estimated annual percentage change of the expected crude incidence rate was slightly reduced by 0.41% (95% CI, −1.06 to 0.24) and was more obvious in women and patients aged greater than 70 years; whereas, it was significantly increased in those aged greater than 75 years. After disentangling age and cohort effects, the implementation of the care programs was associated with an overall net drift of −1.09% (95% CI, −1.65 to −0.52) per year and a significant linear reduction in the period rate ratio from 1.06 (95% CI, 1.02-1.09) in the years 2002-2006 to 0.95 (95% CI, 0.92-0.98) in 2012-2016, using years 2007-2011 as reference. LIMITATIONS: The findings of the study may have limited inferences to other countries with different health care systems. CONCLUSIONS: The implementation of universal CKD care programs in Taiwan has significantly reduced the long-term trends in the incidence of maintenance dialysis; hence, devoting governmental resources to CKD care and prevention is advocated.