A high dietary acid load was associated with an increased risk for albuminuria and reduced kidney function, according to an analysis of patients from the Jackson Heart Study.
There are few data available on the relationship between participant characteristics, dietary acid load, and kidney injury in African Americans with high risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD) progression. The Jackson Heart Study offers an opportunity to examine the impact of diet, particularly dietary acid load, on renal function in that patient population.
Tanushree Banerjee, PhD, and colleagues recently conducted an analysis of data from the Jackson Heart Study to assess (1) the association between participant characteristics (sociodemographic characteristics, cultural, behavioral determinants, violence, coping inventory, global stress, and anger) and dietary acid load, and (2) the association between dietary acid load and impaired kidney function and albuminuria in participants ≥20 years of age in the Jackson Heart Study. Results of the analysis were reported in the Journal of Renal Nutrition.
Another study just published showing that diets with high dietary acid load (animal foods) is associated with reduced kidney function.
Dietary Potential Renal Acid Load and Risk of Albuminuria and Reduced Kidney Function in the Jackson Heart Study https://t.co/aFHhfzT53W
— Shivam Joshi, MD (@sjoshimd) December 30, 2018
The Jackson Heart Study enrolled 5,301 African Americans from the Jackson, Mississippi, area between September 2000 and March 2004. Following exclusion due to missing data, the current analysis included 3,257 individuals. Compared with those with complete data, the 1928 excluded individuals tended to be older (58.3 vs 54.1 years), more likely to be male (37.8% vs 31.7%), to have lower education level (31.4% vs 37.4% college degree), and were less likely to have diabetes (21.3% vs 25.1%).
For the current analysis, participants were stratified into one of three groups by dietary acid load, mEq/d: Low, minimum-50.6, n = 1,075; (2) middle, 50.6-60.1, n = 1,108; and (3) high, 60.1-maximum, n = 1,074.
In unadjusted models, there was an association between high dietary acid load and younger age and male sex. There were also associations between high dietary acid load and less church support, higher body mass index (BMI), higher homeostasis model assessment: insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), more physical activity, lower likelihood of hypertension, and higher total energy intake per day. Results of adjusted models using multivariable analysis showed significantly higher dietary acid load among smokers, those with higher education level, those with higher BMI, and those with higher daily energy intake. In the adjusted model, following exclusion of diabetes, the researchers found significantly lower dietary acid load among those with higher HOMA-IR.
There was more albuminuria among participants with higher dietary load. Following adjustment for potential confounders, the odds of having albuminuria were 1.2 times higher in participants in highest tertile of dietary acid load compared with those in the lowest tertile (odds ratio [OR], 1.15; 95% CI, 0.75-1.70); the association was nonsignificant. The linear trends across tertiles also did not reach statistical significance (P for trend = 0.10). In a subset of participants with hypertension, there was an association between significant odds of albuminuria and the highest (vs the lowest) tertile of acid load. The association was no longer significant following adjustment for aldosterone, and was further attenuated after inclusion of endothelin.
There was no significant association between acid load and eGFR in unadjusted analyses. However, following multivariable adjustment for confounders, the highest and middle tertiles of acid load were associated with a nearly three times odds of reduced kidney function compared with the lowest tertile. There was also a statistically significant association between higher dietary acid load and reduced kidney function across tertiles after adjustment for potential confounders (P for trend = 0.02). In the subset of participants with hypertension, compared with the lowest tertile of dietary acid load, those in the middle and highest tertiles had statistically significant odds of reduced kidney function; the odds were attenuated after further adjustment for aldosterone and endothelin.
The association between dietary acid load and CKD was not significant in unadjusted analyses. In the multivariable model, the odds of CKD among those in the highest tertile of dietary acid load were 2.4 times higher than for those in the lowest tertile. Odds for CKD for participants in the middle tertile were nearly twice as high as for those in the lowest tertile. There was a significant trend of risk of CKD across tertiles with further dietary acid load (P for trend = 0.001). In the subset with hypertension, the odds of risk of CKD were twice as high for those in the highest tertile compared with those in the lowest tertile. The odds were attenuated following further adjustment for aldosterone and endothelin, and the association was no longer significant.
On analysis of only participants with 24-hour urine collection, there was an association between higher levels of dietary acid load and greater odds of albuminuria, compared with the lowest levels of dietary acid load (OR, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.02-1.70). Following adjustment for confounders, there was a significant association between greater dietary acid load and prevalent CKD. Results were similar in the subgroup with hypertension in the primary analysis for highest versus lowest tertile of dietary acid load and albuminuria (OR, 1.29; 95% CI, 1.10-2.52).
“In this high-risk population of African Americans from the South, in general, consumed diets were high in acid load,” the researcher concluded. “These data emphasize the likely role of nutrition in optimizing CKD outcomes and provide insight into dietary factors that may contribute to geographic and racial disparities in kidney disease risk in the United States.”
This post has been edited from the original article cross-posted at Nephrology Times.
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