African Americans often unaware of kidney disease
Reuters – One reason that African Americans have high rates of kidney failure is that earlier, treatable stages of kidney disease are not being recognized in this population, according to findings from the Jackson Heart Study reported in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases for February.
The report, conducted in Jackson, Mississippi, found that only about one in six African-Americans with chronic kidney disease was aware of the condition.
“Much of the problem of patient awareness is due to a lack of awareness of medical practitioners” who continue to adhere to out-dated standards of kidney function, Dr. Michael F. Flessner, at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, said in a prepared statement. “Most physicians were trained in an era in which serum creatinine was used as an absolute indicator of kidney disease.”
Although kidney disease has reached epidemic proportions in the US, African Americans are particularly affected, with rates of end stage renal disease four times higher than among Caucasians, the authors point out.
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