USRDS releases 2020 Interactive Annual Data Report

The Chronic Disease Research Group (CDRG), in partnership with the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), is proud to announce the next evolution of the United States Renal Data System (USRDS) Annual Data Report (ADR): The 2020 interactive ADR. For the first time in the history of the USRDS, the ADR is fully interactive. Through intuitive, easy-to-use navigation, website users can sort through the volume chapters, customize data representation, and download the tailored information in common data formats.

“According to the recently published Global Burden of Disease in The Lancet, chronic kidney disease (CKD) has risen to the eighth leading cause of disability-adjusted life-years in people aged 50 to 74 years,” said Kirsten L. Johansen, MD, director of the USRDS Coordinating Center in Minneapolis, Minn. “As the United States population ages, the impact of chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) on health outcomes and health care spending cannot be overstated.”

Important findings in this year’s Annual Data Report include:

• A 14.9% prevalence of CKD among US adults
• A death rate more than twice as high in people with versus without CKD
• A 40% increase in hospitalizations with acute kidney injury from 2009 to 2018 and a persistently large disparity in acute kidney injury between Black and White patients
• An increase of only 0.2% in the adjusted rate of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) incidence from 2017 to 2018
• Strong growth in home dialysis use and preemptive kidney transplant
• A declining ultrafiltration rate in patients undergoing hemodialysis
• Lack of progress in catheter use at dialysis initiation, as well as hospitalization and readmission of dialysis patients, but a 1.5% decrease in the death rate of dialysis patients from 2017 to 2018
• All-time highs in kidney transplants and graft survival among deceased donor transplants
• Steadily decreasing use of prescription opioids among CKD and ESRD patients from 2009 to 2018
• 23.2% of Medicare fee-for-service spending in patients with CKD and ESRD and continued growth of Medicare Advantage enrollment of dialysis patients

The 2020 ADR also includes new content:

• A chapter devoted to the patient experience, including end-of-life care for patients with ESRD
• A unprecedented look at the impact of COVID-19 on death rates and hospitalizations in patients with ESRD, as well as the incidence of ESRD

“Compared to previous years, dialysis and kidney transplant patient mortality during the spring increased by 37% and 61%, respectively, while hospitalization for non-COVID-related reasons fell by 33%,” says Dr. Johansen. “Remarkably, the number of patients who were newly diagnosed with ESRD declined by almost 20%, illustrating the profound impact of COVID-19 on people with advanced CKD and ESRD.”

“The USRDS has been a critical system for kidney disease surveillance in the United States for more than 30 years,” says Dr. Kevin C. Abbott, Director of the Kidney and Urology Epidemiology Program at NIDDK. “In tandem with the Advancing American Kidney Health initiative, this year’s ADR represents the beginning of a new era, with interactive presentations of data about CKD and ESRD.”

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The USRDS serves the kidney community through research, analysis, and investigator-initiated research. If you have any questions about the new interactive ADR, please contact USRDS.

The core purpose of the USRDS ADR is to characterize the impact of chronic kidney disease on the US population and to support research and policy initiatives designed to improve the care of individuals with kidney disease. The new report features data accumulated through 2018. Along with producing the ADR on end-stage renal disease and chronic kidney disease in the United States, the USRDS fulfills data requests, provides standard analysis files (SAFs) to researchers, produces the Researcher’s Guide to help researchers use USRDS data, and presents the results of its research at national conferences and in peer-reviewed journals. Learn more by visiting the USRDS website (https://www.usrds.org).

NIDDK research creates knowledge about and treatments for diseases that are among the most chronic, costly, and consequential for patients, their families, and the nation. Learn more by visiting the NIDDK website (https://www.niddk.nih.gov).