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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1538744
This article is part of the Research TopicInfluence of Social Determinants on Wellbeing in Chronic Kidney Disease PatientsView all 4 articles
Association of childhood health with adulthood chronic kidney disease: Results from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study
Provisionally accepted
Rong Lian1
Zhenghe Wang2*- 1Guangzhou First People's Hospital, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China
- 2Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China
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Objective Adverse Childhood Experiences have been well-documented as a risk factor for chronic kidney disease (CKD) in adulthood. However, the link between childhood health and adulthood CKD risk is still unclear. This study aimed to explore the connection between childhood health and the likelihood of developing CKD in adulthood.Methods Participants were drawn from the third wave of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). The CKD was identified based on the estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR) and self-reported doctor-diagnosed kidney disease. Childhood health status was assessed through a standard questionnaire and categorized into excellent, fair, and poor groups.The prevalence of CKD was 11.7% (1,480 out of 12,609). The eGFR levels in the self-reported Fair and Poor groups were significantly lower than those in the Excellent group (p <0.05). Compared to the Excellent group, individuals in the Poor group reported a higher risk of CKD (OR=1.38; 95% CI: 1.12-1.70; p=0.002), even after adjusting for factors such as age, sex, smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, highest education level, use of Chinese traditional medicine, diabetes, hypertension, BMI, marital status, and annual household income (OR=1.24; 95% CI:1.01-1.54; p=0.047)The CKD prevalence is notably high in the Chinese adults aged more than 45 years, and a history of poor health in childhood may significantly contribute to the risk of CKD in later life.
Keywords: Childhood health, Health Status, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Chronic kidney disease Community child health, Nephrology, Public Health, kidney & urinary tract disorders
Received: 24 Jan 2025; Accepted: 07 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lian and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Zhenghe Wang, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China
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