Patients who develop AKI during a hospitalization are at substantial risk for the development of CKD by 1 year following hospitalization and timing of AKI recovery is a strong predictor, even for the mildest forms of AKI.

Background and objectives: Few studies have examined health literacy in patients with end stage kidney disease. We hypothesized that inadequate health literacy in a hemodialysis population is common and is associated with poorer access to kidney transplant wait-lists.Design, setting, participants, & measurements: We enrolled 62 Black and White maintenance hemodialysis patients aged 18 to 75. We measured health literacy using the short form Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults. Our primary outcomes were (1) time from dialysis start date to referral date for kidney transplant evaluation and (2) time from referral date to date placed on kidney transplant wait-list. We used Cox proportional hazard models to examine the association between health literacy (adequate versus inadequate) and our outcomes after controlling for demographics and co-morbid conditions.Results Conclusions: Inadequate health literacy is common in our hemodialysis patient population and is associated with a lower hazard of referral for transplant evaluation. Strategies to reduce the impact of health literacy on the kidney transplant process should be explored.

IMPORTANCE Undocumented immigrants with end-stage renal disease have variable access to hemodialysis in the United States despite evidence-based standards for frequency of dialysis care. OBJECTIVE To determine whether mortality and health care use differs among undocumented immigrants who receive emergency-only hemodialysis vs standard hemodialysis (3 times weekly at a health care center). DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS A retrospective cohort study was conducted of undocumented immigrants with incident end-stage renal disease who initiated emergency-only hemodialysis