Diabetic kidney disease on rise in United States

NEW YORK — Despite the expansion of the diabetes drug market over the past 20 years, the rate of diabetic kidney disease has become more prevalent in the United States.

According to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, lead study author Ian de Boer and fellow researchers found that although more people in the country are being diagnosed with diabetes, and more diabetes drugs are on the market, there has been no progress in curbing kidney disease in the diabetes population. de Boer noted that diabetic kidney disease accounts for almost half of the cases of end-stage kidney failure in the United States, while approximately 60% of patients with end-stage kidney disease die within five years of onset, he said.

de Boer, who also serves as assistant professor of medicine in the division of nephrology at the Kidney Research Institute, as well as an adjunct assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington in Seattle, said that diabetic kidney disease occurs develops in about 40% of people with diabetes.

"Improvements in reaching therapeutic targets in diabetes management have not translated into a decline in diabetic kidney disease," de Boer said. "The results of our research don't suggest that standards of diabetes care for controlling blood sugar levels, high blood pressure, and cholesterol should be changed. What the findings suggest is that these treatments alone are not doing an effective job of reducing diabetic kidney disease, and researchers need to find additional ways to do that," de Boer said.