THE RELATION BETWEEN OBESITY AND CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Our aims were to investigate the relation between the severity of obesity and the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in a cross-sectional, population based study. We analyzed the relationship between the body mass index and the KDIGO staging of kidney disease, adjusted for several possible confounding factors. It was hypothesized that obesity acts as a co-factor in the development and progression of CKD. This mechanism is more important to be studied since on one hand obesity is an important etiological component of the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus while, on the other hand, CKD is a prevalent complication of diabetes. Since obesity is a modifiable risk factor, demonstrating the link between it and CKD progression would bring additional arguments for clinicians to intensify weight-loss programs and would also provide a landmark for researchers to prospectively investigate potential benefits of weight loss in decreasing the progression pace of CKD. Our study is the first of its kind in the Western part of Romania, its results revealing a strong association between obesity and severity of chronic kidney disease. Moreover, we demonstrated that obesity has a role not only as a confounding factor but also independently in the progression of CKD.