Healthy Living Lowers Death Risk for Kidney Patients
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — More than 60 million people globally have chronic kidney disease (CKD) and 26 million live in the U.S. alone. In the general population, a healthy lifestyle is linked with a lower risk of dying prematurely, but little is known about such a link in individuals with CKD, who are at higher risk for developing heart problems and dying from heart disease.
To investigate, Ana Ricardo, MD, at the University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System and her colleagues assessed the association of four lifestyle factors (diet, physical activity, body mass index (BMI), and smoking) with death among 2,288 participants with CKD in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
After an average follow-up of 13 years, 1,319 deaths occurred. The researchers discovered that compared with individuals with the lowest healthy lifestyle score, participants with the highest score (nonsmokers who exercised regularly, had a healthy diet, and kept a BMI above 22 kg/m2) were 53% less likely to die from any cause. They also found that individuals with a BMI of 18.5 to <22 had a 30% increased mortality rate compared with those with a BMI of 22 to <25 kg/m2. (Normal BMI is 18.5 to 24.9 kg/m2.) and there was a 46% decreased mortality with never vs. current smoking, and 20% decreased mortality with regular vs. no physical activity. Ricardo and her colleagues were surprised to discover amongst their findings that a person's diet was not significantly associated with mortality.
"Examination of individual components of the healthy lifestyle score, with adjustment for other components, suggested that the greatest reduction in all-cause mortality was related to nonsmoking," Dr. Ricardo was quoted as saying.
The findings reinforce the importance of smoking abstinence counseling in CKD patients and point to the possible benefits of regular physical activity and maintaining a healthy weight. The authors noted that additional work is needed to confirm the results and to investigate what the optimal diet and BMI are in CKD patients.
SOURCE: Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN), March, 2013