scholarly journals The Global Kidney Health Atlas: Burden and Opportunities to Improve Kidney Health Worldwide

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Joyita Bharati ◽  
Vivek Jha ◽  
Adeera Levin

CKD is a growing public health problem. The Global Kidney Health Atlas (GKHA) is an important initiative of the International Society of Nephrology. The GKHA aims to improve the understanding of inter- and intranational variability across the globe, focusing on capacity for kidney care delivery. The GKHA survey was launched in 2017 and then again in 2019, using the same core data, supplemented by information about dialysis access and conservative care. Based on a WHO framework of the 6 building blocks essential for health care, the GKHA assesses capacity in 6 domains: information systems, services delivery, workforce, financing, access to essential medicines, and leadership/governance. In addition, the GKHA assesses the capacity for research in all regions of the world, across all domains (basic, translational, clinical, and health system research). The results of the GKHA have informed policy and been used to enhance advocacy strategies in different regions. In addition, through documentation of the disparities within and between countries and regions, initiatives have been launched to foster change. Since the first survey, there has been an increase in the number of countries which have registries to document the burden of CKD or dialysis. For many, information about the burden of disease is the first step toward addressing care delivery issues, including prevention, delay of progression, and access to services. Worldwide collaboration in the documentation of kidney health and disease is an important step toward the goal of ensuring equitable access to kidney health worldwide.

2008 ◽  
Vol 34 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 125-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron S. Kesselheim

Improving access to essential medicines in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) has become a critical health policy issue. Millions more people die each year in poorer countries from diseases that are treated by pharmaceutical agents currently available in higher income nations. Recent medical innovation has tended to focus on problems affecting populations in developed countries and avoid those found exclusively or predominantly in LMICs. The etiology of these disparities is multifactorial, and can include high costs of products, inadequate cooperation between governments and aid agencies, rigid protection of intellectual property rights, and poor local health leadership regarding dissemination of products.Over the past two decades, there have been growing efforts to reduce global disparities in availability of essential medicines. At the forefront of these efforts have been international agencies such as the World Health Organization, or groups like Médicins Sans Frontières and Partners in Health, which have helped set international health priorities and sought to improve local health care delivery systems.


2021 ◽  
pp. 002203452110018
Author(s):  
J.T. Wright ◽  
M.C. Herzberg

Our ability to unravel the mysteries of human health and disease have changed dramatically over the past 2 decades. Decoding health and disease has been facilitated by the recent availability of high-throughput genomics and multi-omics analyses and the companion tools of advanced informatics and computational science. Understanding of the human genome and its influence on phenotype continues to advance through genotyping large populations and using “light phenotyping” approaches in combination with smaller subsets of the population being evaluated using “deep phenotyping” approaches. Using our capability to integrate and jointly analyze genomic data with other multi-omic data, the knowledge of genotype-phenotype relationships and associated genetic pathways and functions is being advanced. Understanding genotype-phenotype relationships that discriminate human health from disease is speculated to facilitate predictive, precision health care and change modes of health care delivery. The American Association for Dental Research Fall Focused Symposium assembled experts to discuss how studies of genotype-phenotype relationships are illuminating the pathophysiology of craniofacial diseases and developmental biology. Although the breadth of the topic did not allow all areas of dental, oral, and craniofacial research to be addressed (e.g., cancer), the importance and power of integrating genomic, phenomic, and other -omic data are illustrated using a variety of examples. The 8 Fall Focused talks presented different methodological approaches for ascertaining study populations and evaluating population variance and phenotyping approaches. These advances are reviewed in this summary.


Author(s):  
Michael D. Donnan ◽  
Yael Kenig-Kozlovsky ◽  
Susan E. Quaggin

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (Supplement_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoguang Xu ◽  
James Eales ◽  
Xiao Jiang ◽  
Eleanor Sanderson ◽  
David Scannali ◽  
...  

Abstract Background and Aims Obesity and kidney diseases are common complex disorders with an increasing clinical and economic impact on healthcare around the globe. We aim to examine if modifiable anthropometric indices of obesity exert putatively causal effects on different measures of kidney health and disease. Method We performed conventional observational and Mendelian randomisation (MR) study to examine if modifiable anthropometric indices of obesity exert putatively causal effects on different kidney health and disease-related phenotypes. These analyses were conducted using approximately 300,000 participants of white-British ancestry from UK Biobank and up to 480,000 participants of predominantly European ancestry from genome-wide association studies. Results The Mendelian randomisation analysis indicated that increasing values of genetically predicted BMI and waist circumference were causally linked to changes in renal function indices including reduced estimated glomerular filtration (PeGFRcystatineC=5.96 × 10-59 for BMI and PeGFRcystatineC=1.72 × 10-69 for waist circumference) and increased blood urea nitrogen (PBUN=2.01 × 10-10 for BMI and PBUN=4.54 × 10-12 for waist circumference) in UK Biobank individuals. These associations were replicated using data from CKDGen Consortium individuals (PeGFRcystatineC=1.47 × 10-5 for BMI and PeGFRcystatineC=7.63 × 10-5 for waist circumference; PBUN=1.96 × 10-4 for BMI and PBUN=3.10 × 10-3 for waist circumference). One standard deviation increase in genetically-predicted BMI and waist circumference decreased the relative odds of kidney health index by 14% and 18% (OR=0.86; 95%CI: 0.82-0.92; P=9.18 × 10-6 for BMI and OR=0.82; 95%CI: 0.75-0.90; P=2.12 × 10-5 for waist circumference). Approximately 13-16% of the causal effect of obesity indices on kidney health was mediated by blood pressure. Obesity increased the risk of both acute and chronic kidney disease of several aetiologies including hypertensive renal disease (OR=1.79; 95%CI: 1.14-2.82; P=1.15 × 10-2 for BMI and OR=2.41; 95%CI: 1.30-4.45; P=5.03 × 10-3 for waist circumference), renal failure (OR=1.51; 95%CI: 1.25-1.83; P=2.60 × 10-5 for BMI and OR=1.86; 95%CI: 1.43-2.42; P=4.16 × 10-6 for waist circumference) and CKD (OR=1.50; 95%CI: 1.16-1.96; P=2.44 × 10-3 for BMI and OR=1.83; 95%CI: 1.28-2.63; P=9.49 × 10-4 for waist circumference) and diabetic nephropathy (OR=1.92; 95%CI: 1.44-2.54; P=6.86 × 10-6 for BMI). Conclusion These findings indicate that obesity is causally linked to indices of renal health and the risk of different kidney diseases. This evidence substantiates the value of weight loss as a strategy of preventing and/or counteracting a decline in kidney health as well as decreasing the risk of renal disease.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 123
Author(s):  
Austin Eze Egede ◽  
Cajetan Ikechukwu Ilo ◽  
Maryjane Ikechukwu-Nwobodo ◽  
Tessy Amaka Nnaji ◽  
Rita Ihuoma Anaba ◽  
...  

We conducted a systematic review of studies on mHealth and health care services delivery that were carried out within Africa. Our search process was through MEDLINE, and then on PubMed, we searched key terms based on various keywords: “Whatsapp, health, Africa, Text messages, health impact, Africa, mHealth tools, Africa”. This was done in December of 2018. Only English written articles from journals indexed in Science Citation Index Expanded and Social Science Citation Index were incorporated in this review. In line with our inclusion criteria, only a total of 19 out of 155 studies were relevant. Inferences from these studies showed that mHealth tools are speedy and quality means for health care delivery in Africa. We also found out that there is less usage of internet devices in Africa as suspected. There is a serious need for improvement in the use of other online based mHealth tools as it was found that the use of Short Messaging Service (SMS) has been the nearly the sole mHealth intervention utilized in Africa. This, it is believed would foster better wider intervention and implementation of quality health outcomes in Africa, and other low and middle-income regions of the world.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document