UK renal registry 20th annual report: Chapter 5 survival and cause of death in UK adult patients on renal replacement therapy in 2016: National and centre-specific analyses

Short-term (90 day) age adjusted survival of incident RRT patients in the 2015 cohort was similar to the 2014 cohort (96.5% versus 96.8%). One year after 90 day age adjusted survival for incident RRT patients in the 2015 cohort fell slightly to 90.0% compared with the previous year (90.2%). There was a difference in one year after 90 day incident survival by age group and diagnosis of diabetes: patients with diabetes aged ,65 years had worse one year after 90 day survival than patients without diabetes, but for older patients with diabetes (565 years) survival was similar compared to those patients without diabetes. One year age adjusted survival for prevalent dialysis patients was similar at 88.0% in the 2015 cohort, compared with 88.3% in the 2014 cohort. Age adjusted one year survival for prevalent dialysis patients with diabetic primary renal disease has been declining slightly from 2012 onwards. Centre and UK country variability was evident in incident and prevalent patient survival after adjusting to age 60. Further adjustment for comorbidity was not possible due to missing data. The relative one year risk of death for prevalent RRT patients compared with the general population was approximately 21 for age group 35-39 years compared with 1.5 at age 85+ years, but the relative risk of death for younger patients has improved over time. In the prevalent RRT population, cardiovascular disease was the most common cause of death and accounted for 24% of deaths, with infection accounting for 20%. Treatment withdrawal accounted for 17% of deaths and has increased in recent years from historical levels.