Diabetes-related Kidney Disease Rates Falling

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The number of new cases of the most advanced form of kidney disease -- end-stage renal disease -- attributed to diabetes mellitus (ESRD-DM) is declining among US women, whites, and persons below 65 years of age, according to U.S. surveillance data reported in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report November 4th.

Although these surveillance data do not show the reasons for improvement, the authors posit that they may be due to "a reduction in the prevalence of cardiovascular disease risk factors such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol, improvements in diabetes care practices, or development of new pharmacologic agents to reduce the prevalence of kidney disease risk factors."

The decline in cases of kidney failure in some populations represents an encouraging trend in this serious complication of diabetes, health officials say. To continue improving this trend, persons with diabetes or high blood pressure should talk to their doctor and get checked for kidney disease, they suggest.

Lead investigator Dr. N. R. Burrows and colleagues at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention examined trends in ESRD-DM, using 1990-2002 data from the United States Renal Data System and the National Health Interview Survey.

The overall age-adjusted incidence increased from 247 to 305 per 100,000 persons with diabetes between 1990 and1996, and then declined from 293 per 100,000 in 1997 to 232 per 100,000 in 2002.

In addition to the noted decreases in women, whites, and younger persons, the investigators found that the incidence between 1997 and 2002 remained steady among those between 65 and 74 years old, men, blacks and Hispanics, whereas the rate increased 10 percent for those age 75 and older.

SOURCE: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, November 4, 2005.