The role of the economic environment in kidney transplant outcomes

The relationship between global economic indicators and kidney allograft and patient survival is unknown. To investigate possible relationships between the two, we analyzed kidney transplant recipients receiving transplants between January of 1995 and December of 2002 (n = 105 181) in the USA using Cox regression models. We found that: The Dow Jones Industrial Average had a negative association with outcome at one year post-transplant (HR 1.03 and 1.06, p < 0.001 for graft and recipient survival, respectively) but changed to a protective effect in the late period (HR 0.77, p < 0.001, and HR 0.83, p < 0.001 for graft and recipient survival, respectively, five yr after transplantation). Unemployment rate had a protective effect at the time of transplantation (HR 0.97, p < 0.005) and at one year after transplantation (HR 0.95, p < 0.005) but changed to the opposite in the late period at the fifth post-transplant year (HR 1.35, p < 0.001, and HR 1.20, p < 0.001, for graft and recipient survival respectively). The Consumer Price Index measured at different post-transplant time points seems to have had a protective effect on the graft (HR 0.77, p < 0.001 at five yr) and recipient (HR 0.83, p < 0.001 at five yr) survival. Beyond three yr after transplantation, when some of the recipients lose Medicare benefits, economic downturns might have a negative association with the kidney graft and recipient survival.