Association between obesity and risk of chronic kidney disease: A nationwide Cohort study in Taiwan

Increased body fat relates to enhanced inflammatory cytokine production, which, in turn, activates the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system and increases the risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Herein, we aimed to examine the association between obesity and the risk of CKD in a population-representative cohort in Taiwan.

A multistage systematic sampling process was applied in the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) 2000, 2005, and 2009. Participants were interviewed by a standardized face-to-face questionnaire to obtain information on their demographics, socioeconomic status, lifestyle factors, and body mass index (BMI). The BMI values were classified as follows: underweight (<18.5 kg/m²), normal (18.5-23.9 kg/m²), overweight (24-26.9 kg/m²), and obesity (≥27 kg/m²). The NHIS dataset was linked to National Health Insurance claims data to identify the incidence of CKD. Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazard models with competing risks were used to investigate the association between BMI and CKD incidence. We analyzed 45,012 subjects (mean age, 42.03 years; 50.09% males). During 374,254 person-years of follow-up, a total of 1913 new-onset CKD cases were identified. Kaplan-Meier curves comparing the four BMI groups revealed a significant difference (p < 0.01, log-rank test). After controlling for confounding factors, the relative risk of incident CKD was significantly higher in the obese group compared to the normal-weight group (adjusted hazard ratio = 1.32; 95% confidence interval: 1.17-1.49), with a significant linear trend (p < 0.01).

Obesity was suggested as an independent risk factor for CKD. Further studies focusing on the effect of losing weight on CKD prevention are warranted.