Photo Credit: Towfiqu Ahamed

The following is a summary of “Association of obesity severity and duration with incidence of chronic kidney disease,” published in the September 2024 issue of Nephrology by Ghazy et al. 

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to evaluate the impact of obesity severity and duration on chronic kidney disease (CKD) incidence. 

They calculated Cumulative Excess Weight (CEW) and Cumulative Excess Waist Circumference (CEWC) scores, reflecting the accumulation of deviations from expected body mass index and waist circumference values over time until CKD development or the end of the follow-up period. They used time-dependent Cox models to assess the sex-stratified association of CEW and CEWC with CKD incidence after adjusting for confounding variables. 

The results showed that among the 8,697 participants evaluated, 56% (4,865) were women, with a mean age of 40 ± 14, and 41.7% (3,629) developed CKD during the 15-year follow-up. Among patients with CKD, 65.4% (829) of men and 77.9% (1,839) of women had a BMI above 25, while high waist circumference was present in 73.7% (934) of men and 55.3% (1,306) of women. A significant association was observed between a 1 standard deviation change in CEW and CKD development in both sexes, with fully adjusted hazard ratios of 1.155 (1.081–1.232) for men and 1.105 (1.047–1.167) for women; however, the relationship between CEWC and CKD development was significant only in men [HR = 1.074 (1.006–1.147)]. 

Investigators concluded that over a 15-year follow-up, the accumulation of general and central obesity was linked to a higher incidence of CKD development. 

Source: bmcnephrol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12882-024-03757-x#Abs1