Body mass index in an Australian population with chronic kidney disease

Obesity emerged as the leading global health concern in 2017. Although higher body mass index (BMI) is a health risk in the general population, its implications for chronic kidney disease (CKD) are not entirely clear. Our aim was to compare BMI in an Australian CKD population with BMI in a sample of the general Australian population, and, in the same group of CKD patients, to describe associations of higher BMI categories with demographic and clinical features. A cross-sectional study of BMI in CKD patients was conducted from three major sites who were enrolled in the CKD.QLD registry between May 2011 and July 2015. BMI was categorized according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines. The prevalence of obesity was compared with a sample of the general Australian population from the most recent National Health Survey (NHS). Associations of BMI with demographic and clinical characteristics of the CKD patients were also analysed. There were 3382 CKD patients in this study (median age 68, IQR 56-76 years); 50.5% had BMI ≥30, the WHO threshold for obesity, in contrast with 28.4% having BMI ≥30 in the NHS cohort. Higher BMI categories were correlated with age