Kidney failure-related excess mortality during the first three years of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States: a nation-wide, population-based analysis

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-17-2025

School

Health Professions

Abstract

Background

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has had a detrimental impact on the healthcare system. Patients with kidney failure and related kidney disease are notably vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it remains unclear how mortality trends associated with kidney failure have evolved over the past three years. In this study, we investigated temporal trends in excess kidney failure-related mortality during the first three years of the pandemic in the United States.

Methods

We aim to estimate time-varying excess kidney failure-related mortality, which is defined as the difference between observed mortality and expected mortality predicted by a Poisson log-linear regression model, in the United States (March 2020—March 2023).

Results

Our findings revealed two distinct peaks in excess kidney failure-related mortality during the first year (March 2020—February 2021) and the second year (February 2021—March 2022), whereas a notable decline in excess mortality was observed in the third year (March 2022—March 2023). Additionally, disparities in mortality were evident among various demographic groups, including age, sex, racial/ethnic subgroups, and geographic regions. Across all age subgroups, an increase in kidney failure-related mortalities was observed, with individuals aged 85 years and above experiencing the most substantial relative increase, reaching 9595.8 per million persons (95% CI: 9438.8, 9752.9). Moreover, excess kidney failure-related mortalities were recorded at 510.3 per million persons (95% CI: 502.6, 517.9) and 721.8 per million persons (95% CI: 713.4, 730.1) for women and men, respectively. Notably, non-Hispanic Blacks exhibited the highest excess mortality within the racial/ethnic group, registering at 772.6 per million persons (95% CI: 756.3, 788.9).

Conclusions

Our study observed high levels of excess kidney failure-related mortality during the first two years of the pandemic, followed by a notable decline in the third year. This highlights the effectiveness of current policies and prevention measures implemented to mitigate the impact of the pandemic.

Publication Title

BMC Public Health

Volume

25

Issue

1

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