A recent study led by the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) highlights the unknown impact of chronic kidney disease in Spain. The results, published in the journal Nefrología, reveal that this disease was the eighth cause of death in the country in 2016 and the one with the highest growth between 2006 and 2016
The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study monitors worldwide the causes of death by disease. A recent publication, based on the GBD estimates, found that chronic kidney disease was the eighth cause of death in Spain in 2016 and the fastest growing between 2006 and 2016.
According to this manuscript, the increase in deaths from chronic kidney disease were only second to Alzheimer's disease, both in number of deaths and in Years Lived with Disability (YDL) or Disability Adjusted Life Year (DALY). The latter corresponds to the sum of years of potential life lost due to premature mortality and years of productive life lost due to disability.
The manuscript estimates that, if this trend continues, in the coming decades chronic kidney disease will become the second cause of death in Spain, ahead of cardiovascular diseases and cancer, and behind Alzheimer's.
"This means that, if the trend is not changed by strong support for research and assistance in kidney disease, today's young people will have a greater chance of dying of kidney disease in the future than of cancer or heart attack," the authors declare.
The article, which is published in the journal of the Spanish Society of Nephrology, was led by Alberto Ortiz and Maria Dolores Sanchez-Niño, professors of the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) and comments on the nephrological impact of a prior publication led by Joan B. Soriano, also professor of the UAM.
Serious implications
While the population is aware of the implications of a diagnosis of cancer, cardiovascular disease or Alzheimer's, kidney disease is not as well known. In fact, most patients who have kidney disease do not know it. However, it is a cause of death that grows every year at a much higher rate than cancer and cardiovascular disease.
"The problem is aggravated because the health authorities are not aware of the serious health problem of chronic kidney disease. This is due, in part, to the fact that there is no a “chronic kidney disease” category among the top-level mortality categories of the National Institute of Statistics, as it is a term and concept of recent creation", the investigators state.
The publication thus emphasizes the need for health authorities to be aware of the magnitude of the problem and to provide the necessary research and health resources to face it.
"Research in cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, respiratory and digestive diseases, among others, is well funded through a structure of the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII) called the Biomedical Research Network Center (CIBER), but Kidney diseases are excluded from CIBER," the authors write.
Global Burden of Disease
The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) initiative of the Institute of Metrics and Health Assessment (IHME) of the University of Washington, measures the health of populations around the world on an annual basis.
GBD estimates health parameters specific to age, sex and country. The estimates use validated and highly standardized approaches that apply to all available data sources and are adjusted according to the main sources of bias, so that global results are comparable.
Bibliographic reference:
Ortiz A, Sanchez-Niño MD, et al. The Spanish Society of Nephrology (SENEFRO) commentary to the Spain GBD 2016 report: Keeping chronic kidney disease out of sight of health authorities will only magnify the problem. Nefrologia. DOI: 10.1016/j.nefro.2018.09.002.
Soriano JB, Rojas-Rueda D, et al. The burden of disease in Spain: Results from the Global Burden of Disease 2016. Med Clin (Barc). DOI: 10.1016/j.medcli.2018.05.011.
