Men and boys may face higher AKI risk than women and girls
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Key takeaways:
- AKI was found in 53,926 hospitalizations, translating to a prevalence of 22.9% in the study.
- Boys and men had higher risk for AKI across all age groups.
Male patients in all age groups, especially those aged between 16 and 55 years, may face higher AKI risk than female patients, according to data that assessed the impact of sex and age on kidney health.
AKI “is not a monolithic disorder, but rather a response to numerous different renal insults,” Ladan Golestaneh, MD, professor of nephrology medicine at the Yale School of Medicine, said in a press release. “In this context, the sexual disparity we found was present across a wide spectrum of AKI causes.”
Golestaneh and colleagues from Yale and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine set out to understand the relationship between sex and the rate of AKI in hormonally distinct age groups across different stages of life. The prospective cohort study included 132,667 patients hospitalized in the Montefiore Health System between October 2015 and January 2019, and did not include those with kidney failure or obstetric conditions.
Mean age of patients was 55.2 years. There were 235,629 total hospitalizations among the cohort, with women accounting for 55% of admissions. Black and Hispanic patients made up 30.5% and 10.3% of hospitalizations, respectively.
Researchers used Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes AKI criteria.
Overall, AKI was found in 53,926 hospitalizations, translating to a prevalence of 22.9%, according to the researchers. Boys and men had higher risk for AKI across all age groups. The odds ratio for men aged 16 to 55 years was 1.7 (95% CI, 1.6-1.8).
Further, the study highlighted a certain protective effect for women: Those older than 55 years who were prescribed estrogen had lower AKI odds vs. those not prescribed hormone therapy.
“Numerous studies have primarily included post-menopausal women with low estrogen levels, thus masking the protective role of female sex,” Golestaneh said in the release. “Our study shows that the protection afforded by female sex is highest among menstruating women, is absent in prepubertal females and declines with the onset of menopause.”
Reference:
Women, girls at lower risk of acute kidney injury: Study. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-11-women-girls-acute-kidney-injury.html. Published Nov. 1, 2024. Accessed Dec. 16, 2024.
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