Incident chronic kidney disease among Canadian immigrants: a population-based cohort study

IntroductionA ‘healthy immigrant effect’ has been demonstrated for a number of chronic health conditions including cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus and dementia; however, the link between immigrant status and kidney health remains uncertain. We sought to compare the risk for incident chronic kidney disease (CKD) between Canadian immigrants and non-immigrants.MethodsWe conducted a population-level, observational cohort study of all adult (≥18 years of age) Ontario residents, including foreign-born immigrant Canadian citizens and non-immigrant Canadian citizens by birth, with normal baseline kidney function (outpatient estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) ≥70 mL/min/1.73 m2) between 1 April 2007 and 30 September 2020 using provincial health administrative data. Multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression modelling was used to evaluate the relationship between immigrant status and the development of incident CKD (outpatient eGFR