Racial and Ethnic Differences in Mortality of Hemodialysis Patients: Role of Dietary and Nutritional Status and Inflammation

Abstract

Background: Racial/ethnic disparities prevail among hemodialysis patients. We hypothesized that significant differences exist between Black and non-Hispanic and Hispanic White hemodialysis patients in nutritional status, dietary intake and inflammation, and that they account for racial survival disparities. Methods: In a 6-year (2001–2007) cohort of 799 hemodialysis patients, we compared diet and surrogates of nutritional-inflammatory status and their mortality-predictabilities between 279 Blacks and 520 Whites using matched and regression analyses and Cox with cubic splines. Results: In age-, gender- and diabetes-matched analyses, Blacks had higher lean body mass and serum prealbumin, creatinine and homocysteine levels than Whites. In case-mix-adjusted analyses, dietary intakes in Blacks versus Whites were higher in energy (+293 ± 119 cal/day) and fat (+18 ± 5 g/day), but lower in fiber (–2.9 ± 1.3 g/day) than Whites. In both races, higher serum albumin, prealbumin and creatinine were associated with greater survival, whereas CRP and IL-6, but not TNF-α, were associated with increased mortality. The highest (vs. lowest) quartile of IL-6 was associated with a 2.4-fold (95% CI: 1.3–3.8) and 4.1-fold (2.2–7.2) higher death risk in Blacks and Whites, respectively. Conclusions: Significant racial disparities exist in dietary, nutritional and inflammatory measures, which may contribute to hemodialysis outcome disparities. Testing race-specific dietary and/or anti-inflammatory interventions is indicated.