Associations of low-carbohydrate with mortality in chronic kidney disease

Diet management is an effective way to retard the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD). However, very few studies investigated the influence of carbohydrate intake on CKD patients. In this prospective cohort study, the associations between carbohydrate intake and all-cause mortality were investigated in US adult CKD patients.

Multivariable Cox proportional hazard models and iso-caloric replacement analysis were used to investigate the associations between the macronutrients and the all-cause mortality risk. Total 3683 US adult CKD patients 20 years or older from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES, 2003-2014) were analyzed (mean age ± SD, 62.4 ± 17.1; 56.5% female), of which 1082 participants with CKD died with a median follow-up time of 67 (IQR 36-99) months.

Most macronutrients were non-linearly associated with all-cause mortality risk, including carbohydrates and sugar. Participants with CKD had lower mortality risk when consuming 30-45% energy from carbohydrates (average HR 0.76, 95%CI 0.62-0.93, compared with 60%), 5-20% energy from sugar (average HR 0.75, 95% CI 0.59-0.96 compared with 40%). Replacing the energy intake from carbohydrates with protein (up to 30%) and/or replacing the sugar with non-sugar carbohydrates (up to 55%) reduced the all-cause mortality risk, while the total energy intake remained constant.

Diet advice should be given according to the current diet status, and constituents of carbohydrates should also be taken into consideration.