Predictors and Outcomes of Health-Related Quality of Life in Adults with CKD.

Background And Objectives: Low health-related quality of life is associated with increased mortality in patients with ESRD. However, little is known about demographic and clinical factors associated with health-related quality of life or its effect on outcomes in adults with CKD.

Design, Settings, Participants, & Measurements: Data from 3837 adult participants with mild to severe CKD enrolled in the prospective observational Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort and Hispanic Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort Studies were analyzed. Health-related quality of life was assessed at baseline with the Kidney Disease Quality of Life-36 and its five subscales: mental component summary, physical component summary, burden of kidney disease (burden), effects of kidney disease (effects), and symptoms and problems of kidney disease (symptoms). Low health-related quality of life was defined as baseline score >1 SD below the mean. Using Cox proportional hazards analysis, the relationships between low health-related quality of life and the following outcomes were examined: (1) CKD progression (50% eGFR loss or incident ESRD), (2) incident cardiovascular events, and (3) all-cause death.

Results: Younger age, women, low education, diabetes, vascular disease, congestive heart failure, obesity, and lower eGFR were associated with low baseline health-related quality of life (P<0.05). During a median follow-up of 6.2 years, there were 1055 CKD progression events, 841 cardiovascular events, and 694 deaths. Significantly higher crude rates of CKD progression, incident cardiovascular events, and all-cause death were observed among participants with low health-related quality of life in all subscales (P<0.05). In fully adjusted models, low physical component summary, effects, and symptoms subscales were independently associated with a higher risk of incident cardiovascular events and death, whereas low mental component summary was independently associated with a higher risk of death (P<0.05). Low health-related quality of life was not associated with CKD progression.

Conclusions: Low health-related quality of life across several subscales was independently associated with a higher risk of incident cardiovascular events and death but not associated with CKD progression.