Drop in occurrence of Rate of End-Stage Kidney Disease in Diabetics

End stage kidney disease is the final end stage of process of kidney damage caused by diabetes. Diabetes due to its tendency to cause damage to the small vessels (microangiopathy), leads to a series of events of kidney damage. ESRD is the final stage requires periodic dialysis or renal transplantation. Not only is it a costly and disabling condition but also can lead to premature death. Diabetes is the leading cause of ESRD in the United States and accounted for 44 percent of the approximately 110,000 cases that began treatment in 2007 (by 2010).

But it is now found that there is a drop in ESRD in diabetics in a news report by the Centre for disease control and prevention which has reported that “The rate of new cases of end-stage kidney disease requiring dialysis among Americans diagnosed with diabetes fell 35 percent between 1996 and 2007. The age-adjusted rate of ESRD that was linked to diabetes declined from 304.5 to about 199 per 100,000 people during the same time.

Though there is a tremendous increase in the number of cases of diabetes as well as number of diagnoses of ESRD during the same period, the study found that the prevalence of ESRD among diabetics has decreased.

During that time, the total number of adults aged 18 and older who began treatment for diabetes-linked ESRD each year increased from 32,716 to 48,712. Thus there was an increase in number of cases of ESRD due to diabetes. But the increase in ESRD as compared to the rate of increase in prevalence of diabetes is not as much significant. Thus leading to an overall fall in the rate of diabetics with ESRD.

This fall in rate of ESRD in diabetics has been attributed to better diagnostic and treatment options that are available for diabetics, continued awareness, interventions to reduce the prevalence of risk factors for kidney failure, improvement in patient education about the disease and its complications and early initiation of measures to prevent progression to ESRD.