Kidney recipients in their mid-teens are at the greatest risk for losing the graft, researchers reported.
Additionally, in a retrospective database analysis, black teens, ages 14 through 16, were at the highest risk of having the new kidney fail, according to Kenneth Andreoni, MD, of the University of Florida in Gainesville, and colleagues.
Recipients with government insurance also had an elevated risk of graft failure, Andreoni and colleagues reported online in JAMA Internal Medicine.
The transition from pediatric to adult healthcare is difficult for patients with chronic conditions, the researchers noted. In the case of transplants to adolescents, graft losses can be partly blamed on age-related physiological or immunologic changes but psychological and sociological factors play a role, especially if they affect medication adherence.
In end-stage renal disease, previous investigators have reported that adolescent kidney recipients have better graft survival at 1 year, but greater graft loss within a decade. And previous database analyses have found similar age-related disparities.
