The number of Canadians living with end-stage kidney disease has risen 57 per cent over the past decade, finds a new report, with the higher rates being blamed on rising diabetes rates and an aging population.
The numbers, released by the Canadian Institute for Health Information, are actually a slight improvement on the last report on kidney disease. That earlier CIHI report showed a 70 per cent increase in the number of people living with kidney failure between 1996 and 2006.
The new report, which covers the period from 1999 to 2008, says 36,600 Canadians were living with kidney failure at the end of 2008.
Nearly half of those people were living on dialysis. Another 41 per cent were people who had received a kidney transplant.
Among the key reasons for the rising number of kidney failure cases are increasing rates of diabetes, which is the most frequently reported primary cause of end-stage kidney disease. Diabetes, which often dmages the tiny blood vessels fo the kidneys, was identified in 35 per cent of new kidney disease cases in 2008, the report found.
The aging of the Canadian population is also contributing to rising kidney disease rates. The highest rate of end-stage kidney disease by age group is among those 75 and older, though the rate in that age group has been slowly declining since 2005.
The report found 53 per cent of those using dialysis and other forms of renal replacement therapy were age 65 and older in 2008, compared to just 49 per cent in 1999.
Kidney failure, also called end-stage renal disease, is defined as the condition in which the kidneys are permanently impaired and can no longer function normally to maintain life. People with this stage of kidney disease need dialysis for the rest of their lives or a kidney transplant.
