Data suggests that four healthy behaviours were associated with a 68% decreased risk of all- cause mortality.
Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) who have a healthy lifestyle has been linked to lower risks of heart attack, stroke, and other ailments in the general population, but also raised some new questions.
Ana C. Ricardo, MD, of the University of Illinois at Chicago, and colleagues assessed adherence to four healthy lifestyle factors such as regular physical activity, body mass index (BMI) 20.0 to 24.9 kg/m2 (normal weight), smoking abstinence, and a healthy diet – using baseline data for 3,006 adults with mild to moderate CKD enrolled in the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort (CRIC) study.
According to results that the investigators compared with these lifestyle factors 4 years later, adhering to all behaviours was associated with a 68% lower risk of early death from all causes. Published online ahead of print in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases, the results revealed that regular physical activity and smoking abstinence were also specifically linked with reduced odds of early death. In addition, not smoking was associated with decreased risks of kidney disease progression and cardiovascular events such as heart attack and stroke.
Investigators found reduced risks of renal and cardiovascular events for BMI 25 kg/m2 and above (overweight) and early death for BMI 30 kg/m2 and above, which means higher BMI was linked to better outcomes. Meanwhile, a BMI below 20 kg/m2 (underweight) was linked to double the risk of premature death from all causes.
“The current findings emphasize the need for further research to evaluate the relationship between BMI and outcomes in patients with CKD and determine what represents an ideal BMI for this population,” the researchers wrote.
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