Chronic renal disease in spain: prevalence and related factors in persons with diabetes mellitus older than 64 years

Introduction: Type 2 diabetes mellitus and chronic kidney disease (CKD) are conditions which have a high prevalence in individuals ≥ 65 years of age and represent a major public health problem.

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of CKD, its categories and its relationship with various demographic and clinical factors in elderly patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in Spain.

Methods: Observational, cross-sectional, multicenter, Spanish epidemiological study. Patients with known type 2 diabetes mellitus, age ≥ 65 years of age treated in Primary Care were included. We collected demographic, anthropometric and analytical variables from the previous 12 months, including the albumin-to-creatinine ratio and estimated glomerular filtration rate to evaluate renal function.

Results: The prevalence of CKD was 37.2% (95% CI, 34.1-40.3%), renal failure was 29.7% (95% CI, 26.8-32.6%) and increased albuminuria was 20.6% (95% CI, 17.3-23.9%), moderately increased albuminuria was 17.8% (95% CI, 14.7-20.9%) and severely increased albuminuria was 2.8% (95% CI, 1.4-4.2%). In turn, the prevalence of CKD categories were: G1 1.3% (95% CI, 0.6-2%), G2 6.2% (95% CI, 4.6-7.8%), G3a 17.2% (95% CI, 14.8-19.6%), G3b 9.8% (95% CI, 7.9-11.7%), G4 2% (95% CI, 1.1-2.9%) and G5 0.7% (95% CI, 0.2-1.2%). In the multivariate analysis, after adjusting for the remaining variables, CKD was associated with elderly age (OR 5.13, 95% CI, 3.15-8.35), high comorbidity (OR 3.36. 95% CI, 2.2-5.12) and presence of antihypertensive treatment (OR 2.43. 95% CI, 1.48-4.02).

Conclusions: CKD is frequent in the diabetic population ≥ 65 years of age and is associated with elderly age, high comorbidity and with treated hypertension. No relationship has been found with gender and time in years since onset of diabetes.