Erythropoietin Dose and Mortality in Hemodialysis Patients: Marginal Structural Model to Examine Causality

Table 4

Adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval) for mortality by weekly epoetin- doses in incident patients.

Epoetin-α dose (U/wk)	All-cause	Cardiovascular	Infectious
<6 000	Reference	Reference	Reference
6 000 to <12 000	0.98 (0.89–1.07)	1.06 (0.96–1.18)	1.08 (0.93–1.25)
12 000 to <18 000	1.03 (0.94–1.14)	1.07 (0.95–1.19)	1.10 (0.93–1.29)
18 000 to <24 000	1.07 (0.96–1.20)	1.14 (1.01–1.30)	1.18 (0.99–1.40)
24 000 to <30 000	1.11 (1.00–1.24)	1.16 (1.02–1.31)	1.11 (0.93–1.33)
≥30 000	1.29 (1.15–1.44)	1.23 (1.09–1.40)	1.18 (1.00–1.40)

Note: incident patient was defined as having a dialysis vintage of less than 6 months at cohort entry. Bold font indicates statistically significant odds ratios.