Study: Socioeconomic status may factor into health outcomes of youth with CKD
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Key takeaways:
- Socioeconomic disadvantages could lead to greater exposure and vulnerability to adverse factors.
- Children with chronic kidney disease may be at risk for reduced academic achievement.
Socioeconomic status may play a role in the health outcomes of children and adolescents with chronic kidney disease, according to a published review of current evidence.
Low socioeconomic status could reduce health access that may worsen disease burden, Anita van Zwieten, PhD, of the University of Sydney in Australia, wrote with colleagues.
“Children and adolescents in families of lower socioeconomic position (SEP) experience an inequitable burden of reduced access to health care and poorer health,” the researchers wrote.
“For children living with chronic kidney disease (CKD), disadvantaged SEP may exacerbate their considerable disease burden. Across the life-course, CKD may also compromise the SEP of families and young people, leading to accumulating health and socioeconomic disadvantage.”
Researchers summarized current evidence on conceptual models from social epidemiology, clinical and policy implications, and the relationship between kidney care and health that could account for impacts of family socioeconomic position and bidirectional impacts of CKD on socioeconomic position.
van Zwieten and colleagues determined that socioeconomic disadvantages could lead to greater exposure and vulnerability to adverse factors — including material, psychosocial, behavioral and biological challenges that can compound health disparities across development — and impact the overall well-being of children with CKD. Additionally, children with CKD may be at risk for reduced academic achievement and could face challenges in transitioning to adulthood.
“Globally, dedicated efforts to tackle inequities are critical to ensuring that all young people with CKD have the opportunity to live long and flourishing lives,” van Zwieten and colleagues wrote. They added, “To prevent accumulating disadvantage, the global nephrology community must advocate for local government action on upstream social determinants of health and adopt a life-course approach to kidney care that proactively identifies and addresses unmet social needs, targets intervening factors between SEP and health and minimizes adverse socioeconomic outcomes across financial, educational and vocational domains.”
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