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Once dialysis has been initiated in older patients who have end-stage renal disease (ESRD), short-term mortality is high (>50% at 1 year in patients older than 80), and quality of life among survivors is unclear. Researchers used two national databases — one that contained information on dialysis patients and one that included information about functional status among nursing home patients — to evaluate 3702 nursing home residents (mean age, 73) with ESRD. Functional status was measured with global assessment of activities of daily living (score range, 0–28; higher scores represented lower function).
At 3 months after initiation of dialysis, 76% of patients were alive, although their functional status had deteriorated from a median score of …