Lifestyle risk factors and chronic kidney disease

To examine the effects of lifestyle risk factors such as alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking and body mass index (BMI) on the development of chronic kidney disease.

We used a case-control study of 554 hospital cases and 516 age, race, and gender-matched community controls. The main outcome measure was newly-diagnosed chronic kidney disease, assessed by chart review. Self-reported history of alcohol consumption, smoking, and BMI as well as other co-variables were obtained during telephone interviews. Logistic regression models assessed the association between lifestyle risk factors and chronic kidney disease and were adjusted for important co-variables.

We found no significant associations between alcohol consumption and chronic kidney disease, with the exception of moonshine, which resulted in an increased risk of chronic kidney disease (including all subtypes). The effects of smoking on chronic kidney disease were inconsistent, but pointed to no appreciable excess risk among smokers. Increasing quartiles of BMI were positively and significantly associated with nephrosclerosis (ORs [95% CI]: 2.5 [1.0-6.0], 2.8 [1.2-6.8] and 4.6 [1.8-11.6], for the second, third, and fourth quartiles of BMI, respectively).

Our study revealed a significant positive association between BMI and nephrosclerosis. We did not find an increased risk of chronic kidney disease associated with alcohol or cigarette smoking.