Chronic Kidney Disease Is Associated With Increased All-Cause Mortality Risk Among Older Black Adults

Older patients diagnosed with chronic kidney disease (CKD) have a higher risk of all-cause mortality than the general population. However, there is limited information available on how CKD relates to all-cause mortality among Black adults in the United States. We aimed to investigate how CKD relates to all-cause mortality risk among older Black adults.

This study draws on a subsample of self-identified Black participants (N = 1 393) from the Health and Retirement Study ages 52 to 96 who completed the anthropomorphic and biomarker supplement in 2006/2008. Our measure of CKD derives from serum cystatin C-based using dried blood spots, and all-cause mortality derives from the National Death Index and a key informant within the household from 2006 to 2019.

Twenty-nine percent of respondents died during the study period, whereas 31% had CKD. The mean age of the entire sample is 64.52. Results from our Cox proportional hazards models showed that CKD was independently associated with an increased risk of death from all causes among older Black participants in a model that adjusted for demographics, behavioral, clinical, and health characteristics.

Results from our study confirm that CKD is associated with increased risk of death from all causes among older Black adults. Future studies should examine whether changes in CKD over time relate to all-cause mortality risk among older Black adults.