• Posted December 19, 2024

Multiple Chronic Conditions Can Add Up to Kidney Trouble

The sicker a senior becomes, the more likely they’re going to develop kidney problems on top of their other health challenges.

A new study published Dec. 17 in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS), shows that as a person’s number of chronic illnesses increases, a decline in their kidney function becomes both more likely and steeper.

This is particularly true of people with many heart problems, and people with a large number of chronic illnesses that require lots of medication and treatments.

“Our findings emphasize the importance of a comprehensive assessment that considers not only the overall chronic disease burden, but also the complex interplay between diseases when evaluating the risk of kidney function decline in older adults,” said lead researcher Giorgi Beridze, a doctoral student in geriatric epidemiology with the Karolinska Institute.

For the study, researchers followed the health of nearly 3,100 seniors in Sweden over a 15-year period as part of an aging study.

The researchers specifically looked for patterns of chronic illness that might increase a person’s risk of kidney disease.

More than a third (38%) of people 65 and older experience a persistent decline in their kidney function, which can severely impact their overall health and quality of life, researchers said in background notes.

The team identified five different patterns of chronic disease that seniors might fall into as they grow older and time takes its toll.

Two chronic disease patterns did not appear to affect kidney health -- one involving psychiatric and respiratory problems, and another reflecting relatively healthy seniors with few ongoing medical problems.

But three chronic disease patterns specifically appeared to increase risk to a person’s kidney health:

• A high rate of heart health problems like high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, heart disease and other heart risk factors, which more than tripled a person’s risk of kidney decline.

• A high overall burden of chronic health problems, which increases kidney risk by about 45%. More than a third of patients with chronic kidney disease at the start of the study fell into this category.

• A pattern of chronic diseases affecting a person’s brain function and senses increased a person’s relative kidney risk by about 55%.

These chronic illnesses might damage the kidneys because they’re associated with diabetes, or because they create inflammation that damages the organs, researchers said.

Tracking these disease patterns as people age, and managing chronic illnesses, could help people maintain their kidney health, the researchers concluded.

“Individuals presenting with diseases that are characteristic of high-risk multi-morbidity patterns may particularly benefit from increased kidney function monitoring, promotion of healthy lifestyle and timely pharmacological interventions,” Beridze said.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about risk factors for kidney disease.

SOURCE: Wiley, news release, Dec. 18, 2024; Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS), study, Dec. 17, 2024