Kidney failure risk higher for men

Approximately 1-in-40 men and 1-in-60 women in middle-age will develop kidney failure if they live into their 90s, U.S. researchers found. Dr. Tanvir Chowdhury Turin, Dr. Brenda Hemmelgarn of the University of Calgary, Alberta, and their colleagues studied 2,895,521 adult Alberta residents who were free of kidney failure at the start of the study in 1997 to 2008. "Given the high morbidity and cost associated with kidney failure, we wanted to quantify the burden of disease for kidney failure in an easily understandable index to communicate information for patients, health practitioners, and policy makers," Turin said in a statement quoted by the United Press International (UPI). The study, published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, found a risk of 2.66 percent of kidney failure for men, and a 1.76 percent risk for women. The risk was higher in those with reduced kidney function -- 7.51 percent for men and 3.21 percent for women -- compared with people with relatively preserved kidney function -- 1.01 percent for men and 0.63 percent for women. The lifetime risk of kidney failure was consistently higher for men at all ages and kidney function levels, compared with women, the researchers said.