Neighborhood Can Increase the Risk of Chronic Kidney Diseases

High risks of chronic kidney diseases can be influenced by the neighborhood’s overall socioeconomic status, including income and education level, reveals a recent study published in SSM Population Health by researchers from Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health.// Previous studies have shown a connection between an individual’s socioeconomic status and chronic kidney disease. However, very less is known about the influence of an individual’s neighborhood characteristics on the risks of chronic kidney disease, poor blood sugar control and uncontrolled high blood pressure especially in urban areas.

In a study of 23,692 adult Philadelphians, all seen in a primary care practice in 2016 or 2017, it was found that people living in low socioeconomic status neighborhoods, were more prone to kidney diseases than those living in higher socioeconomic status neighborhoods.

Poor neighborhood walkability is related to poor blood sugar control in chronic kidney disease patients and poor blood pressure control in people without chronic kidney disease.

“Our finding, that people who are living in neighborhoods with the fewest resources are at highest risk for kidney disease, should be a call to health providers to integrate knowledge about their patients’ environments in their care processes, and to policymakers to allocate resources to at-risk communities that will promote health,” said senior author Meera Harhay, MD, an associate professor of Medicine at Drexel’s College of Medicine and Dornsife School of Public Health.

Chronic kidney diseases are characterized by impaired kidneys that filter inadequate waste and fluids out of the blood. If not diagnosed and managed early, this impairment can lead to kidney failure and dialysis or a kidney transplant as the ultimate options.

Around 37 million of U.S. adults are estimated to suffer from chronic kidney disease and nine out of 10 of those cases are left undiagnosed.

Advertisement

The findings of this research are valuable to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Advancing American Kidney Health Initiative, which aims at reducing the number of Americans in end-stage renal disease by 25% by 2030.

“This study offers tools to help identify communities at higher risk of kidney disease at earlier stages so their condition can be managed to prevent end-stage kidney disease from developing,” Harhay said.

Advertisement

Health providers are suggested to consider incorporating knowledge about neighborhood-level social determinants of health when they are analyzing their patients.

It is also noted that future studies should determine what the neighborhood characteristics might contribute to increasing of chronic kidney disease and whether socioeconomic status might be a marker for lower access to health-promoting resources, such as information on self-care and chronic disease management, that might help prevent chronic kidney disease.



Source-Medindia