Chronic Kidney Disease Kills More Men Than Women, Says a Study

Men with chronic kidney disease are more likely to go through disease progression and death, when compared to women.

Women had 31 per cent lower risk of death from chronic kidney disease than men.

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A study conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago has revealed that men with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are more likely to go through a disease progression and ultimately, death, when compared to women suffering from the same condition.

Medical News Today explains chronic kidney disease as a slow and progressive loss of kidney function over a period of several years. Eventually, a person develops permanent kidney failure.

The Study

To investigate sex differences in CKD progression, the researchers used data from 3939 adults, among which 1778 were women and 2161 were men, enrolled in the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort Study, a large, diverse CKD cohort. Associations between sex and incidence of ESRD (undergoing dialysis or kidney transplant) were then evaluated.

It was observed that women had lower risk of CKD progression and death compared with men. These differences remained statistically significant, even after adjustment for socio-demographic characteristics, baseline kidney function, cardiovascular risk factors, medications, and markers of bone mineral metabolism.

Medical Express quotes Dr. Ana Ricardo, lead author of the study, as saying,

We found that women had 17 percent lower risk of experiencing ESRD and the risk of death was 31 percent lower in women than in men.

Additional investigation is needed to identify biologic and psychosocial factors underlying these sex-related differences.