Kidney disease deaths moved into the top 10 leading causes of death in 1996. This was due more to a decline in other causes of death than the increase in kidney disease deaths, which have been relatively stable for the past 10 years. Michigan's 1997 age-adjusted death rate of 5.4 was similar to the U.S. rate of 4.4. Kidney disease was the ninth leading cause of death in the U.S. in 1997. African-Americans are more than twice as likely to die of kidney disease as whites.
Men are more likely to die of kidney disease than women.
The Michigan age-adjusted death rate was 6.0 for men and 4.4 for women. U.S. data for 1997 indicated that 307,967 people had ESRD and 57,793 patients being treated for ESRD died in 1997. The five-year survival rate is about three times higher for transplant patients than for dialysis patients. In addition to the people on dialysis, another 3,341 people had a working kidney transplant. At the end of 1997, there were 1,595 people waiting for a kidney and 78 waiting for a kidney and pancreas transplant in Michigan.