Background: The relationship between self-rated health (SRH) and the development of incident chronic kidney disease (CKD) has not been explored in the general population.
Methods: We reviewed the data of 7027 participants in the Ansung-Ansan cohort study. SRH was categorized as poor, fair, or good, and the outcome was the development of CKD, defined as the first event of an estimated glomerular filtration rate < 60 mL/min/1.73 m2, at least twice during the follow-up period. Hazard ratios (HRs) and confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using Cox proportional hazards regression analysis.
Results: Over a mean follow-up duration of 11.9 years, 951 participants (13.5%) developed CKD. Compared with poor self-rated health, the HR (95% CI) of fair self-rated health for incident CKD development was 0.771 (0.657-0.905; P = 0.001), whereas that of good self-rated health was 0.795 (0.676-0.935; P = 0.006). However, the renal hazard of good self-rated health did not differ from that of fair self-rated health. In the fully adjusted model, the HR (95% CI) of poor self-rated health compared to non-poor self-rated health for incident CKD was 1.278 (1.114-1.465, P < 0.001). Old age, smoking, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, impaired sleep, and high levels of C-reactive protein and white blood cell counts were associated with increased odds of poor self-rated health, whereas male sex, college graduate level of education, and alcohol consumption were associated with decreased odds of poor self-rated health.
Conclusion: Poor self-rated health is independently associated with CKD development. Therefore, the early detection of potential CKD patients through a brief questionnaire assessment may help control the incidence of CKD.
Keywords: Chronic kidney disease; Health perception; Patient-reported outcome measures; Self-rated health.
© 2022. The Author(s) under exclusive licence to Italian Society of Nephrology.