The American Diabetes Association at its annual conference highlighted dramatic increases of chronic kidney disease (CKD) for Aboriginal Australians. Aboriginal patients with end stage renal disease are up to 30 times more likely to have finished up as such than non-Aboriginal diabetic patients.
Health journalist Jill Stein reports in The International Renal and Ural News that the 73rd Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association, held in Chicago, heard University of Western Australia’s Professor Timothy Davis conducted a collaborative study comparing the characteristics of nephropathy complicating type 2 diabetes between Aboriginal and Anglo-Celt Australians from within the same geographical area.
Professor Davis is the head of the Fremantle Unit of UWA’s School of Medicine and Pharmacology.
The rate of incidence of end-stage renal disease was found to be 20 to 30 times in Aboriginal patients. Some of the research indicates that remote living Aboriginal peoples are more susceptible to nephropathy than those who are urban residents.
The research group’s study included 105 Aboriginal type-2 diabetes patients and 827 Anglo-Celt patients living in the same area. The study found that Aboriginal patients were more likely to have higher levels micro- and macroalbuminuria. High levels of albuminuria are a forerunner to kidney nephropathy. Dietary intervention is believed to have the capacity to reduce levels.
Some studies have shown that 50 per cent of all Aboriginal diabetes patients have some degree of abnormal levels of albuminuria.
The researchers found that urban Aboriginal patients are nearly seven times as likely as Anglo-Celt patients to enter a high CKD stage.
“This finding suggests that urban-dwelling Aboriginal patients with type-2 diabetes have the same marked propensity for nephropathy as their counterparts from remote or rural settings, “ said Professor Davis.
Various factors in the remote, including inaccessibility to specialist medical intervention and to various care and treatment education escalated risks for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal patients, with Aboriginal patients dramatically much worse. Sufferers of CKD in type-2 Aboriginal patients are susceptible to other complications such as retinopathy and neuropathy.
