Higher social risk linked to developing chronic kidney disease
Among 279,548 people without chronic kidney disease, each additional social risk point was linked to greater risk of developing it, with a hazard ratio of 1.12.
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
This prospective observational study included 279,548 UK Biobank participants without chronic kidney disease and 19,761 with established disease. Researchers combined 15 social factors covering economic circumstances, education, healthcare, neighborhoods and social life into a risk score.
Over a median follow-up of 13 years, 6,628 participants developed chronic kidney disease. Each extra score point was associated with a hazard ratio of 1.12—a measure of relative risk over time, not an absolute probability. Among participants who already had kidney disease, higher scores were also linked to cardiovascular disease and death from any cause. Analyses in subsets suggested that patterns of blood proteins and other small molecules, along with lifestyle factors, accounted for part of these associations.
Why it matters
The findings suggest social circumstances may be worth incorporating into clinical tools that assess who may develop chronic kidney disease or fare worse after diagnosis.
Caveats
This observational study cannot establish that social risks caused the outcomes or that the measured blood molecules explained a causal pathway. Participants came from the UK Biobank, and molecular analyses used subsets with available data.
The paper
Nanfang Hospital
Science China Life Sciences, Oct 20, 2026
