Abstract
In 1995, the Japanese Society for Dialysis Therapy conducted a statistical survey of 2, 871 facilities in Japan and received replies from 2, 866 facilities (99.82%). As of the end of 1995, there were 154, 413 chronic dialysis patients in Japan, an increase of 10, 704 patients (7.4%) over a year from the end of 1994. The gross mortality rate was 9.7%, which was the highest mortality rate since 1983.
The mean age of the patients who started their dialysis therapy in 1995 was 61.0 years old (±14.20 years old S. D.). This shows that the dialysis patients' aging had advanced more than last year. The patients who started dialysis due to chronic glomerulonephritis in 1995 decreased compared to last year. This is 39.4% out of all the patients who started dialysis in 1995. On the other hand, the patients who started dialysis due to diabetic nephropathy increased, and their percentage was 31.9%.
In this survey, Japanese dialysis patients'social status was also investigated. Results showed that 78.6% of all male dialysis patients and 18.8% of all female patients, whose age was between 15 and 59 years old, were full-time or part-time employees.
Logistic regression analysis of the life expectancy of regular hemodialysis patients in Japan revealed that the following factors were death risks: pre-dialysis serum β2-microglobulin concentration in excess of 30mg/l, less than 30% pre-dialysis hematocrit, and dose of recombinant human erythropoietin in excess of 6, 000 units per week.
