UPPSALA, Sweden, May 12 (UPI) -- Obesity is an important and potentially preventable risk factor for chronic renal failure, according to Swedish researchers.
"Our results confirm an accumulating body of clinical and experimental data implicating obesity as an important causative factor in kidney disease," said lead author Dr. Elisabeth Ejerblad of Uppsala University.
Ejerblad and colleagues assessed body mass index -- a measure of weight that considers the person's height -- and other potential risk factors in 926 Swedish patients with moderately severe CRF. Chronic renal failure is gradual, irreversible loss of kidney function that can lead to end-stage renal disease, a permanent loss of kidney function requiring dialysis or kidney transplantation.
Subjects who met the definition of obesity -- BMI of 30 or higher -- at any age were three to four times more likely to develop CRF. For women, morbid obesity of BMI 35 or higher was also a risk factor for CRF.
The findings are published in the June Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
