Mortality associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in the Swiss dialysis population beyond SARS-CoV-2 infection

• Published in: Clinical kidney journal 2024-12, Vol.17 (12), p.sfae322
• Main Authors: Jaques, David A, Hoessly, Linard, Guidotti, Rebecca, Koller, Michael, Ponte, Belen, Ambuehl, Patrice
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Original
• ISSN: 2048-8505; 2048-8513
• DOI: 10.1093/ckj/sfae322

While SARS-CoV-2 infection has direct obvious consequences on patients undergoing dialysis, the COVID-19 pandemic also had an indirect impact on health systems. Therefore, we aimed to determine whether the COVID-19 era itself was associated with adverse consequences in the Swiss dialysis population as compared to the pre-COVID-19 era, while accounting for direct impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection. We retrospectively included all patients recorded in the Swiss dialysis registry from January 2014 to December 2022. The pre-COVID-19 era and the COVID-19 era were defined based on the cut-off date of January 2020. Cox proportional hazard model was used with all-cause mortality as the primary outcome. The cohort consisted of 7837 patients from 97 dialysis centres. Median age was 68.6 years with 66.1% men. Crude mortality rates were 11.6% (11.0% to 12.2%) and 14.2% (13.4% to 14.9%) person-years for the pre-COVID-19 era and the COVID-19 era, respectively. In multivariable analysis, SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with an increased risk of mortality (HR 4.26, 95% CI 3.65 to 4.97,