Public Health for Chronic Kidney Disease Prevention and Care

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects almost one-tenth of the world’s population and can incur serious burdens on families and governments if renal replacement therapy is required. CKD is caused by complex factors that varied by location or country. Exploring potential causal factors and mechanisms of CKD can help with prevention. Previous studies have identified traditional CKD factors in developed countries, but only a few have looked at their dynamic impact over extended periods of time. More research into novel factors and mechanisms could be beneficial to the developing countries suffering from CKD for unknown reasons. Screening and case referral plays the first line for medical intervention. Only a small amount of research has been done on the CKD screening model’s accuracy and usefulness. Furthermore, allocating optimal resources to avoid complications and delay dialysis development in CKD is also challenging. The academic society would be interested in providing optimal CKD care options for decision-makers. Therefore, we respectively invite relevant professionals to offer their wisdom and intellect to the Research Topic, which could have significant impacts on future CKD prevention and management.

The Research Topic invites studies from around the world to help close recent gaps of public health knowledge at different phases of chronic kidney disease (CKD)’s natural history. Review papers for improving renal health, risk factors for causal inference, illness model in precision judgment will also be appreciated. This Research Topic is aimed at achieving the following objectives:
1. Understanding the interactive effects of genetic and environmental factors of kindy disease across the life course to aid future public health initiatives.
2. Providing information on CKD screening procedures (effectiveness, accuracy, screening intervals, and case referral).
3. Demonstrating the impacts of public health interventions on incidence and progression of CKD.
4. Investigating the role of early life risk factors in CKD.
5. Developing and using the CKD model to aid in medical decision-making.
6. Identifying appropriate CKD care resources to achieve health-related sustainable development goals.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to the following:
• Epidemiological studies of risk factors and incidence and prevalence of chronic kidney disease during gestation, childhood, adolescence and adult life;
• Evaluation of the effectiveness of chronic kidney disease screening tools or programs;
• The complex mechanisms (intermediate or interaction effects) of different risk factors to determine causal relationships between life course exposures and chronic kidney disease incidence or progression;
• Interventions and their impacts on chronic kidney disease incidence or progression;
• Determinants and exposures resulting from social inequalities, especially environmental/occupational exposures (biological, physical, or chemical hazards) on kidney disease, particular for unknown causes;