Gender-based comparison of clinical, epidemiological, and laboratory characteristics in hemodialysis patients: a retrospective analysis

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to analyze and compare the clinical, epidemiological, and laboratory characteristics of male and female patients with kidney disease admitted for hemodialysis. METHODS: This retrospective, observational, cross-sectional study analyzed the clinical, epidemiological, and laboratory data from electronic health records of patients admitted for hemodialysis at a university hospital between January 2022 and November 2023, comparing men's and women's profiles. All adult patients were consecutively included, except those with missing data. RESULTS: A total of 163 patients were included: 53.9% of whom were male and 43.4% self-identified as white. Chronic kidney disease was diagnosed at admission in 78.5% of cases, with diabetes mellitus being the leading etiology, affecting 20.4% of men and 26.6% of women. Men had significantly higher serum creatinine (7.9 vs. 6.3 mg/dL; p