Faculty Collaboration Database

The relationship between financial hardship and incident diabetic kidney disease in older US adults - a longitudinal study. BMC Nephrol 2021 May 05;22(1):167

Date

05/07/2021

Pubmed ID

33952186

Pubmed Central ID

PMC8101204

DOI

10.1186/s12882-021-02373-3

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-85105481844 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   4 Citations

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Financial hardship is associated with poor health, however the association of financial hardship and incident diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is unknown. This study aimed to examine the longitudinal relationship between financial hardship and incident DKD among older adults with diabetes.

METHODS: Analyses were conducted in 2735 adults age 50 or older with diabetes and no DKD using four waves of data (2006-2012) from the Health and Retirement Study, a national longitudinal cohort. The primary outcome was incident DKD. Financial hardship was based on three measures: 1) difficulty paying bills; 2) food insecurity; and 3) cost-related medication non-adherence using validated surveys. A dichotomous financial hardship variable (0 vs 1 or more) was constructed based on all three measures. Cox regression models were used to estimate the association between financial hardship, change in financial hardship experience and incident DKD adjusting for demographics, socioeconomic status, and comorbidities.

RESULTS: During the median follow-up period of 4.1 years, incident DKD rate was higher in individuals with versus without financial hardship (41.2 versus 27/1000 person years). After adjustment, individuals with financial hardship (HR 1.32, 95% CI 1.04-1.68) had significantly increased likelihood of developing DKD compared to individuals without financial hardship. Persistent financial hardship (adjusted HR 1.52 95% CI 1.06-2.18) and negative financial hardship (adjusted HR 1.54 95% CI 1.02-2.33) were associated with incident DKD compared with no financial hardship experience. However, positive financial hardship was not statistically significant in unadjusted and adjusted (adjusted HR 0.89 95% CI 0.55-1.46) models. Cost-related medication non-adherence (adjusted HR 1.43 95% CI 1.07-1.93) was associated with incident DKD independent of other financial hardship measures.

CONCLUSIONS: Financial hardship experience is associated with a higher likelihood of incident DKD in older adults with diabetes. Future studies investigating factors that explain the relationship between financial hardship and incident DKD are needed.

Author List

Corwin TR, Ozieh MN, Garacci E, Palatnik A, Egede LE

Authors

Leonard E. Egede MD Center Director, Chief, Professor in the Medicine department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Mukoso Nwamaka Ozieh MD Assistant Professor in the Medicine department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Anna Palatnik MD Associate Professor in the Obstetrics and Gynecology department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Aged
Diabetic Nephropathies
Drug Costs
Female
Follow-Up Studies
Health Care Costs
Humans
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Medication Adherence
Middle Aged
Proportional Hazards Models
United States