Associations between Deprivation, Geographic Location, and Access to Pediatric Kidney Care in the United Kingdom

Background and objectives Pre- emptive kidney transplantation is advocated as best practice for children with kidney failure who are transplant eligible; however, it is limited by late presentation. We aimed to determine whether socioeconomic deprivation and/or geographic location (distance to the center and rural/urban residence) are associated with late presentation, and to what degree these factors could explain differences in accessing pre-emptive transplantation. Design, setting, participants,& measurementsAcohort studyusingprospectivelycollectedUnited KingdomRenal Registry and National Health Service Blood and Transplant data from January 1, 1996 to December 31, 2016 was performed. We included children aged.3 months to #16 years at the start of KRT. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to determine associations between the above exposures and our outcomes: late presentation (defined as startingKRTwithin 90 days of first nephrology review) and pre-emptive transplantation, with a priori specified covariates. ResultsAnalysiswasperformedon2160 children(41% females), withamedianageof 3.8years (interquartile range, 0.2-9.9 years) at first nephrology review. Excluding missing data, 478 were late presenters (24%); 565 (26%) underwent pre-emptive transplantation, none of whom were late presenting. No association was seen between distance or socioeconomic deprivation with late presentation, in crude or adjusted analyses. Excluding late presenters, greater area affluencewas associatedwithhigherodds ofpre-emptive transplantation, (odds ratio, 1.20 per quintile greater affluence; 95% confidence interval, 1.10 to 1.31), with children of SouthAsian (odds ratio, 0.52; 95% confidence interval, 0.36 to 0.76) or Black ethnicity (odds ratio, 0.31; 95% confidence interval, 0.12 to 0.80) less likely to receive one. A longer distance to the center was associated with pre-emptive transplantation on crude analyses; however, this relationship was attenuated (odds ratio, 1.02 per 10 km; 95% confidence interval, 0.99 to 1.05) in the multivariable model. Conclusions Socioeconomic deprivation or geographic location are not associated with late presentation in children in the United Kingdom. Geographic location was not independently associated with pre- emptive transplantation; however, children frommore affluent areasweremore likely to receive a pre-emptive transplant.

Automated summary

The study found that socioeconomic deprivation and geographic location are not associated with late presentation in children in the UK. While geographic location was not independently associated with preemptive transplantation, children from more affluent areas were more likely to receive a preemptive transplant.