Dialysis Patients Do Better at Higher Altitudes

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That translated into about a 15 percent reduced risk for those at the highest elevations compared to those at the lowest.

Still, it's not entirely clear if the initial hypothesis -- that less oxygen results in more iron and more red blood cells -- explains the outcome.

"So-called hypoxia-inducted factors [factors induced by lower oxygen levels] affect probably more than 100 systems and genes downstream, some of which may affect long-term survival, including those that may affect cardiovascular health," said study author Dr. Wolfgang C. Winkelmayer, an associate physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

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The authors also took the analysis one step further: reviewing data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to find that the general population also tends to live longer at a higher elevations, though the benefit is less than that seen in dialysis patients.

"This appears to be the first nationwide observation [of an association between altitude and overall mortality in the U.S. population]," said Winkelmayer.

One previous study had indicated that some people living in mile-high or comparable cities get sick from the altitude and tend to move back down.

"This is something we can't take into account [in this study], but if that were truly the case then, if anything, the association in the general population would be attenuated and potentially go away," thereby making the effect in dialysis patients even greater, Winkelmayer said.

More information

The National Kidney Foundation has more on dialysis.

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