Geriatric comorbidities, such as falls, confer an independent mortality risk to elderly dialysis patients

Abstract

Background. As the number of patients aged ≥65 years starting haemodialysis (HD) continues to increase, more patients are at risk of falls, functional decline and cognitive impairment. In an earlier prospective cohort study, we showed that 44% of elderly HD patients had more than one fall within a 1-year period. The objective of this study was to assess whether falls remained predictive of increased mortality risk even after controlling for age, comorbidity, dialysis vintage and laboratory variables.