Obesity in type 2 diabetes patients tied to higher risk of diabetic kidney disease: Study

The study revealed the following findings:

• One standard deviation increase in BMI was causally associated with higher DN risk (OR, 3.76), and lower eGFR level (OR, 0.71).
• However, BMI was not causally associated with proteinuria.
• Sex-stratified analyses indicated the causal effect of BMI on DN was stronger in women (OR, 14.81) than in men (OR, 3.48).
• Sensitivity analyses did not show evidence for violation of the MR assumptions.

"Genetic evidence demonstrated that higher BMI levels were causally associated with increased risk of DN and decreased eGFR levels," wrote the authors. "Moreover, the escalation in BMI level had a greater impact on DN risk in women."

""These results provide a theoretical basis for the potential therapeutic benefits of reducing BMI to prevent the occurrence and progression of diabetic nephropathy."

"People with diabetes and obesity should have their kidneys checked more often, as they are at high risk, and while chronic kidney disease has no cure, early detection and obesity treatment could slow the progression to end-stage kidney disease," Liu said in a press release.

Reference:

Jingru Lu, PhD, Xiaoshuang Liu, MSc, Song Jiang, PhD, Shuyan Kan, PhD, Yu An, PhD, Chunxia Zheng, PhD, Xiang Li, PhD, Zhihong Liu, MD, Guotong Xie, PhD, Body Mass Index and Risk of Diabetic Nephropathy: A Mendelian Randomization Study, The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2022;, dgac057, https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgac057