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(HealthDay News) — Women aren’t treated with dialysis as often as men when they have end-stage renal disease, according to research published October 28 in PLOS Medicine.
The study, led by Manfred Hecking, MD, from the Arbor Research Collaborative for Health in Ann Arbor, MI, examined the use of hemodialysis in 206,374 adults in 12 countries.
While men and women survived at about the same rate, 59% of men were on dialysis while only 41% of women were. Men were also more likely to get kidney transplants, the investigators found. It’s not clear why the gap exists, the researchers said in a journal news release. Factors may include differences in patient care and awareness of kidney disease.
“The finding that fewer women than men were being treated with dialysis for end-stage renal disease merits detailed further study, as the large discrepancies in sex-specific hemodialysis prevalence by country and age group are likely explained by factors beyond biology,” Hecking and colleagues write.
