AUTHOR=Hou Yi-Chou , Huang Hui-Fen , Tsai Wen-Hsin , Huang Sin-Yi , Liu Hao-Wen , Liu Jia-Sin , Kuo Ko-Lin 

TITLE=Vegetarian Diet Was Associated With a Lower Risk of Chronic Kidney Disease in Diabetic Patients

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Nutrition

VOLUME=9

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2022.843357

DOI=10.3389/fnut.2022.843357

ISSN=2296-861X

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Introduction</title><p>Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a pathological hyperglycemic state related to the dysregulation of insulin. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a common chronic complication in diabetic patients. A vegetarian diet could be one of the preventive strategies for the occurrence of CKD in patients with diabetes mellitus. However, it is still unknown whether a vegetarian diet lowers the occurrence of CKD in DM patients.</p></sec><sec><title>Research Design and Methods</title><p>This retrospective study was conducted at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital from 5 September 2005 to 31 December 2016. Subjects with an HbA1c level &gt; 6.5% or previous history of diabetes mellitus elder than 40 years were grouped based on self-reported dietary habits (vegetarians, lacto-ovo vegetarians and omnivores) in the structured questionnaire. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied to estimate the direct and indirect effects of variables on the occurrence of chronic kidney disease.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>Among these 2,797 subjects, the participants were grouped into dietary habits as vegans (<italic>n</italic> = 207), lacto-ovo vegetarians (<italic>n</italic> = 941) and omnivores (<italic>n</italic> = 1,649). The incidence of overall CKD was higher in the omnivore group [36.6% vs 30.4% (vegans) and 28.5% (lacto-ovo vegetarian), <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001]. In the SEM model, after adjusting for age and sex, the lacto-ovo vegetarian [OR: 0.68, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.57–0.82] and vegan groups (OR 0.68, 95% CI: 0.49–0.94) were both associated with a lower risk of CKD occurrence than the omnivore group. The vegan diet and lacto-ovo diet lowered the risk related to a high BMI (OR: 0.45, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001, OR: 0.58, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001) and hyperuricemia (OR: 0.53, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001; OR: 0.55, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001) for the occurrence of CKD.</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusion</title><p>Vegetarian dietary habits were associated with a lower occurrence of CKD in DM patients.</p></sec>