Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Mar 11;36(8):1561-1571.
doi: 10.1681/ASN.0000000653.

Family History in the Context of CKD

Francesca Zanoni  1   2 , Maddalena Marasa  2 , Lucrezia Carlassara  2 , Miguel Verbitsky  2 , Atlas Khan  2 , Chen Wang  2 , Joshua D Bundy  3 , Pietro A Canetta  2 , Andrew S Bomback  2 , Afshin Parsa  4 , Harold I Feldman  5 , Ali G Gharavi  2   6 , Krzysztof Kiryluk  2 ; CRIC Study Investigators and the CureGN Study
Collaborators, Affiliations

Family History in the Context of CKD

Francesca Zanoni et al. J Am Soc Nephrol. .

Abstract

Key Points:

  1. Family history of kidney disease was not associated with kidney disease progression in the context of established CKD.

  2. Family history of diabetes was a risk factor of CKD progression independently of diabetes status, polygenic risk, and traditional risk factors.

Background: A family history of health conditions may reflect shared genetic and/or environmental risk. It is not well known to what extent family history affects outcomes among patients with CKD. In this study, we investigated the associations of family history of CKD, diabetes, and other conditions with common comorbidities and kidney disease progression among patients with CKD.

Methods: We performed an observational study of two prospective CKD cohorts, 2573 adults and children from the Cure Glomerulopathy Network and 3939 Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort adult participants. Self-reported first-degree family history of CKD, diabetes, and other common diseases was tested for associations with the risk of comorbidities and CKD progression using multivariable models.

Results: Family history of common comorbid conditions was associated with higher risk of these conditions in the context of CKD, including approximately by over three-fold for diabetes (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 3.37; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.73 to 4.15), 48% for cancer (adjusted OR, 1.48; 95% CI, 1.05 to 2.09), and 69% for cardiovascular disease (adjusted OR, 1.69; 95% CI, 1.36 to 2.10 in combined cohorts). While polygenic risk score (PRS) for CKD was associated with kidney disease progression (adjusted hazards ratio, 1.11; 95% CI, 1.06 to 1.16 in combined cohorts), family history of kidney disease was not an independent risk factor of disease progression in the context of existing CKD. By contrast, family history of diabetes was significantly associated with a higher risk of CKD progression independently of diabetes occurrence or PRS for diabetes (adjusted hazards ratio, 1.19; 95% CI, 1.05 to 1.35 in combined cohorts).

Conclusions: Broad collection of family history in the context of CKD improved clinical risk stratification. Family history of diabetes was consistently associated with a higher risk of CKD progression independently of diabetes status or PRS for diabetes in both cohorts.

Keywords: CKD; epidemiology and outcomes; glomerular diseases; polymorphisms; progression; risk factors.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure forms, as provided by each author, are available with the online version of the article at http://links.lww.com/JSN/F115.

References

    1. Ramsey SD, Yoon P, Moonesinghe R, Khoury MJ. Population-based study of the prevalence of family history of cancer: implications for cancer screening and prevention. Genet Med. 2006;8(9):571–575. doi: 10.1097/01.gim.0000237867.34011.12 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bezemer ID, van der Meer FJM, Eikenboom JCJ, Rosendaal FR, Doggen CJM. The value of family history as a risk indicator for venous thrombosis. Arch Intern Med. 2009;169(6):610–615. doi: 10.1001/archinternmed.2008.589 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kronzer VL, Crowson CS, Sparks JA, Myasoedova E, Davis J. Family history of rheumatic, autoimmune, and nonautoimmune diseases and risk of rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2021;73(2):180–187. doi: 10.1002/acr.24115 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Safarova MS, Bailey KR, Kullo IJ. Association of a family history of coronary heart disease with initiation of statin therapy in individuals at intermediate risk: post hoc analysis of a randomized clinical trial. JAMA Cardiol. 2016;1(3):364–366. doi: 10.1001/jamacardio.2016.0227 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Valdez R, Yoon PW, Liu T, Khoury MJ. Family history and prevalence of diabetes in the U.S. population: the 6-year results from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1999-2004). Diabetes Care. 2007;30(10):2517–2522. doi: 10.2337/dc07-0720 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources