Kidney function could effectively predict type 2 diabetes risk, suggests new research published in Kidney International.

Researchers included 1,337,452 individuals from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs database in the analysis. None of them had diabetes at baseline. Over a median follow-up of 4.93 years, 172,913 (12.93%) incident cases of diabetes were noted. In a weighted analysis, there were 210,873 incident diabetes cases; 23,649 of these occurred in those with a blood urea nitrogen (BUN) level >25 mg/dL (19.85%) vs. 18,224 cases in those with a BUN ≤25 (15.32%). In individuals with normal estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) (≥60 ml/min per 1.73 m2), BUN levels >25 mg/dL were thus linked with an increased risk for diabetes (hazard ratio 1.27, 95% CI 1.24-1.31).

It has long been known that diabetes is a major risk factor for chronic kidney disease (CKD), but the results of this analysis now suggest that kidney disease, through elevated levels of urea, also heightens the risk of diabetes.