PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Tan, Wei Beng AU - Szücs, Anna AU - Burkill, Sarah M AU - Hui, Ong Shih AU - Young, Doris AU - Hoon, Goh Lay TI - Nephrologist referrals of older patients with chronic kidney disease in Singapore: a cross-sectional study AID - 10.3399/BJGPO.2021.0155 DP - 2022 Sep 01 TA - BJGP Open PG - BJGPO.2021.0155 VI - 6 IP - 3 4099 - http://bjgpopen.org/content/6/3/BJGPO.2021.0155.short 4100 - http://bjgpopen.org/content/6/3/BJGPO.2021.0155.full SO - BJGP Open2022 Sep 01; 6 AB - Background Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is common in the older population. By 2035, approximately one-quarter of Singapore residents are expected to have CKD. Many of these patients are not referred to nephrologists.Aim To compare the characteristics of older patients (aged ≥65 years) with CKD stage ≥3B in the referral and non-referral groups.Design & settings A cross-sectional study in the primary care organisation National University Polyclinics (NUP), Singapore.Method Retrospective data were extracted from the electronic health records of patients with CKD (aged ≥65 years) with CKD stage ≥3B.Results From 1 January–31 December 2018, a total of 1536 patients aged ≥65 years were diagnosed with CKD stage ≥3B (non-referral group = 1179 versus referral group = 357). The mean patient age in the non-referral group (78.4 years) was older than that in the referral group (75.9 years) (P<0.001). Indian older patients were referred more compared with their Chinese counterparts (P = 0.008). The non-referral group was prescribed significantly less fibrate, statins, insulin, sulfonylureas, dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP4) inhibitors, and antiplatelet than the referral group (P<0.05), but only the difference in fibrates remained significant on subsequent multivariate analysis.Conclusion This study demonstrates that there is a considerable number of older patients with CKD exclusively managed in the primary care setting (n = 1179) and that referrals primarily depend on demographic factors, namely age and ethnic group, rather than medical determinants of CKD severity or case complexity.