Educational programs improve the preparation for dialysis and survival of patients with chronic kidney disease

Preparation for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is widely acknowledged to be suboptimal in the United States. We sought to determine whether participation in a kidney disease screening and education program resulted in improved ESRD preparation and survival in 595 adults who developed ESRD after participating in the National Kidney Foundation Kidney Early Evaluation Program (KEEP), a community-based screening and education program. Non-KEEP patients were selected from a national ESRD registry and matched to KEEP participants based on demographic and clinical characteristics. The main outcomes were pre-ESRD nephrologist care, placement of permanent vascular access, use of peritoneal dialysis, pre-emptive transplant wait listing, transplantation, and mortality after ESRD. Participation in KEEP was associated with significantly higher rates of pre-ESRD nephrologist care (76.0% vs. 69.3%), peritoneal dialysis (10.3% vs. 6.4%), pre-emptive transplant wait listing (24.2% vs. 17.1%), and transplantation (9.7% vs. 6.4%) but not with higher rates of permanent vascular access (23.4% vs. 20.1%). Participation in KEEP was associated with a lower risk for mortality (hazard ratio 0.80), but this was not statistically significant after adjusting for ESRD preparation. Thus, participation in a voluntary community kidney disease screening and education program was associated with higher rates of ESRD preparation and survival.