Thank you for visiting nature. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer. In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript. Early detection is a key strategy to prevent kidney disease, its progression and related complications, but numerous studies show that awareness of kidney disease at the population level is low.
Therefore, increasing knowledge and implementing sustainable solutions for early detection of kidney disease are public health priorities. Economic and epidemiological data underscore why kidney disease should be placed on the global public health agenda β kidney disease prevalence is increasing globally and it is now the seventh leading risk factor for mortality worldwide.
Moreover, demographic trends, the obesity epidemic and the sequelae of climate change are all likely to increase kidney disease prevalence further, with serious implications for survival, quality of life and health care spending worldwide. Importantly, the burden of kidney disease is highest among historically disadvantaged populations that often have limited access to optimal kidney disease therapies, which greatly contributes to current socioeconomic disparities in health outcomes.
This joint statement from the International Society of Nephrology, European Renal Association and American Society of Nephrology, supported by three other regional nephrology societies, advocates for the inclusion of kidney disease in the current WHO statement on major non-communicable disease drivers of premature mortality.
In , United Nations member states agreed on the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals SDGs , with the aim to end poverty and inequality, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy health, justice and prosperity. An important health-related target is the reduction of non-communicable disease NCD -related mortality by one-third by ref. The WHO has listed heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and chronic lung disease as the five major NCDs driving premature death and disability 2.
