Sex and Gender Differences in Patient Outcomes in Individuals Living with Chronic Kidney Disease
type: CreativeWork
description: More than 48,000 Canadians live with kidney failure and require life-sustaining kidney replacement therapy, in the form of dialysis. The prevalence of dialysis continues to rise, increasing by 1.6% annually, with the majority of patients initiating in-centre hemodialysis (ICHD) compared to home-based dialysis (home hemodialysis [HD] and peritoneal dialysis [PD]). Although dialysis is essential for survival, patients experience poorer outcomes compared to the general population, including poor quality of life and increased risk of mortality and morbidity. Home-based dialysis offers potential benefits yet remains underutilized. Further, females living with chronic kidney disease receiving dialysis experience worse outcomes compared to males, including reduced quality of life and increased risk of mortality. However, it remains unclear if these health disparities are attributable to sex (biological) and/or gender (sociocultural) differences. Therefore, the objective of this thesis was to investigate sex and gender differences in individuals living with chronic kidney disease and important clinical outcomes. This work comprises of three studies. First, a mixed-methods study investigated how gender and gender-related factors influenced an individual’s likelihood of choosing home dialysis. From this work, we observed that although a majority of individuals are likely to choose home dialysis, gender factors may influence that choice, including marital status and support systems at home. Second, a prospective cohort study examined sex- and gender-related differences in HRQoL among individuals living with kidney failure treated with conventional (3x/week) compared to incremental (2x/week) HD. After 3 months, we found that females on conventional dialysis had improved physical health and females that had roles traditionally ascribed to women in Western societies had improved mental health on incremental HD while no differences were observed in males, irrespective of gender an…
abstract: More than 48,000 Canadians live with kidney failure and require life-sustaining kidney replacement therapy, in the form of dialysis. The prevalence of dialysis continues to rise, increasing by 1.6% annually, with the majority of patients initiating in-centre hemodialysis (ICHD) compared to home-based dialysis (home hemodialysis [HD] and peritoneal dialysis [PD]). Although dialysis is essential for survival, patients experience poorer outcomes compared to the general population, including poor quality of life and increased risk of mortality and morbidity. Home-based dialysis offers potential benefits yet remains underutilized. Further, females living with chronic kidney disease receiving dialysis experience worse outcomes compared to males, including reduced quality of life and increased risk of mortality. However, it remains unclear if these health disparities are attributable to sex (biological) and/or gender (sociocultural) differences. Therefore, the objective of this thesis was to investigate sex and gender differences in individuals living with chronic kidney disease and important clinical outcomes. This work comprises of three studies. First, a mixed-methods study investigated how gender and gender-related factors influenced an individual’s likelihood of choosing home dialysis. From this work, we observed that although a majority of individuals are likely to choose home dialysis, gender factors may influence that choice, including marital status and support systems at home. Second, a prospective cohort study examined sex- and gender-related differences in HRQoL among individuals living with kidney failure treated with conventional (3x/week) compared to incremental (2x/week) HD. After 3 months, we found that females on conventional dialysis had improved physical health and females that had roles traditionally ascribed to women in Western societies had improved mental health on incremental HD while no differences were observed in males, irrespective of gender an…
author: Riehl-Tonn, Victoria
language: en
keywords: chronic kidney disease, sex differences, gender differences, hemodialysis
date published: 2025-09-18
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:30:13Z
provider: University of Calgary
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Cumming School of Medicine

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/1880/122998

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.11575/PRISM/50592