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Clinical Trial
. 2016 May 25;11(5):e0153588.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0153588. eCollection 2016.

Abdominal Obesity, Race and Chronic Kidney Disease in Young Adults: Results from NHANES 1999-2010

Harini Sarathy  1 , Gabriela Henriquez  1   2 , Matthew K Abramowitz  1   3 , Holly Kramer  4 , Sylvia E Rosas  5 , Tanya Johns  1 , Juhi Kumar  6 , Amy Skversky  2 , Frederick Kaskel  2 , Michal L Melamed  1   3
Affiliations
Clinical Trial

Abdominal Obesity, Race and Chronic Kidney Disease in Young Adults: Results from NHANES 1999-2010

Harini Sarathy et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Objective: Kidney dysfunction in obesity may be independent of and may precede the development of hypertension and/or diabetes mellitus. We aimed to examine if abdominal obesity is associated with early markers of CKD in a young healthy population and whether these associations differ by race and/or ethnicity.

Methods: We analyzed data from the NHANES 1999-2010 for 6918 young adults ages 20-40 years. Abdominal obesity was defined by gender criteria of waist circumference. CKD markers included estimated glomerular filtration rate and albuminuria ≥30 mg/g. Race stratified analyses were done overall and in subgroups with normal blood pressures, normoglycemia and normal insulin sensitivity. Awareness of CKD was assessed in participants with albuminuria.

Results: Abdominal obesity was present in over one-third of all young adults and was more prevalent among non-Hispanic blacks (45.4%) versus Mexican-Americans (40.6%) or non-Hispanic whites (37.4%) (P-value = 0.004). Mexican-American young adults with abdominal obesity had a higher odds of albuminuria even among those with normal blood pressure, normal glucose, and normal insulin sensitivity [adjusted odds ratio 4.5; 95% confidence interval (1.6-12.2), p = 0.004]. Less than 5% of young adults with albuminuria of all races and ethnicities had been told they had kidney disease.

Conclusion: Abdominal obesity in young adults, especially in Mexican-Americans, is independently associated with albuminuria even with normal blood pressures, normoglycemia and normal insulin levels. Greater awareness of CKD is needed to protect this young population from long-standing exposure to abdominal obesity and early progressive renal disease.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Prevalence of kidney awareness with race among young adults ages 20–40 years with albuminuria.
Microalbuminuria defined as urine albumin: urine creatinine ratio ≥30 mg/g irrespective of gender.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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