Many individuals’ comorbidities are known risk factors for CKD progression. Besides, multimorbidity may also increase the treatment burden on patients leading to polypharmacy and eventually deteriorating patient’s quality of life. Even though multimorbidity is common in CKD populations, a tool to accurately evaluate its impact on CKD patients is yet to be determined. It has been seen that a higher degree of comorbidity is linked with poorer outcomes, like all-cause mortality, hospitalization, and increased duration of hospital stay.

Research reports have shown that slowing down the deterioration of renal function is an important factor in caring for stage 3-5 CKD patients in whom multimorbidity is common. Treating comorbidities in these patients aimed to reduce disease burden, thus slowing the deterioration of the renal function.

In South Asian individuals with CKD, risk of ESRD was higher and CKD-EPI-PK was associated with ESRD in South Asian individuals. The authors concluded that specific CKD interventions, including CKD-EPI-PK should be considered in South Asian populations. The authors have reported that South Asian individuals have increased chances of developing end-stage renal disease.

The determination of the number of comorbidities in patients leads to a simple, readily applicable, and valid method for classifying comorbidities and predicting renal outcomes in patients with stage 3-5 CKD. The number of comorbidities present may be considered while customising health care plans.

Reference: LeeWC, et al. The number of comorbidities predicts renal outcomes in patients with stage 3-5 chronic kidney disease. J Clin Med, 2018; 7(12): 493.