Hypertension in early-stage kidney disease: an update from the Kidney Early Evaluation Program (KEEP)

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a worldwide public health problem. Systolic blood pressure as an associated feature of CKD has not been fully explored in community volunteer and nationally representative samples of the US population.

This cross-sectional analysis evaluated hypertension and early-stage CKD in participants in the Kidney Early Evaluation Program (KEEP), a voluntary community-based health screening program administered by the National Kidney Foundation, and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data to assess similarities and differences between these populations. Participants in both databases were 18 years or older.

The KEEP database included 88,559 participants and the NHANES included 20,095. Hypertension prevalence was greater in KEEP (69.6%) than NHANES (38.1%; P < 0.001). Compared with NHANES participants, KEEP participants had greater rates of obesity (79.5% versus 51.5%; P < 0.001) and diabetes (28.0% versus 8.9%; P < 0.001). In participants with diabetes, KEEP had slightly greater rates of prevalent hypertension (88.5% versus 85.7%; P = 0.03). In participants with hypertension, CKD stages 3 and 4 were more prevalent in KEEP than NHANES (79.1% versus 69.3%; P < 0.001). Rates of CKD stages 3 and 4 were greater in KEEP than NHANES for the following subgroups: African Americans (72.4% versus 57.4%; P < 0.001), smokers (69.1% versus 55.6%; P = 0.002), and participants with hypercholesterolemia (80.2% versus 71.9%; P < 0.001).

In the volunteer KEEP population, rates of hypertension and CKD were greater than in NHANES, most prominently in African Americans and participants with increased cardiovascular risk.