Photo: Getty Images
Chronic kidney disease is now among the top 10 leading causes of global death, according to new research published in the journal The Lancet (h/t FOX News).
Chronic kidney disease is now the ninth leading cause of death worldwide with record numbers of men and women reportedly suffering from reduced kidney function. Researchers at NYU Langone Health, the University of Glasgow, and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington analyzed 2,230 published papers and health datasets from 133 countries, as well as diagnoses, mortality and the death toll for chronic kidney disease, which showed that cases increased from 378 million in 1990 to 788 million in 2023.
The increased data landed chronic kidney disease among the top 10 leading causes of death for the first time ever with an estimated 14% of the global adult population having been diagnosed and about 1.5 million people dying from the disease in 2023, an increase of more than 6% since 1993. Most of the patients involved in the study were in the early stages of their diagnosis and could have improved with medication and lifestyle changes before needing to undergo dialysis or surgery, according to the researchers.
The study was presented at the American Society of Nephrology's annual Kidney Week conference last week and was described as being "the most comprehensive estimate of the condition in nearly a decade," according to its authors.