Costs of dialysis for elderly people in the UK.

Background: Growing acceptance rates of elderly patients for dialysis requires a careful planning of renal services expansion. As little is known about the actual resource use in patients 70 years and over, we evaluated the entire range of costs related to treatment, hospitalization, medication and other health and social service use, and assessed the impact of socio-demographic and clinical factors on costs.

Methods: Service use and costs were assessed in a 12-month prospective cohort study of 171 dialysis patients, 70 years of age and over, from four hospital-based renal units in London, UK.