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If you were low birth weight, you are 60 to 70 percent more likely to develop kidney disease, a new study shows.
– Everyone should know how much they weighed when they were born. Your birth weight can tell you if you are at increased risk of developing chronic kidney failure, Anna Gjerde tells the Haugesund newspaper.
Using the Medical Birth Register, he has studied the birth weight of 2.6 million Norwegians.
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The findings that have now been made attract attention beyond the borders of Norway. For Gjerde and his colleagues, it is important that the findings reach people who may be in the risk group.
– You can have it without knowing it
– If you weighed less than 2.8 kilos at birth, you should contact your GP to have your blood pressure and urine checked. The reason is that children with low birth weight, who were born prematurely or have had growth retardation in the womb are at higher risk of developing kidney disease in adulthood, Gjerde explains.
About 10 percent of those surveyed by Gjerde had low birth weight. It is defined as 2940 grams for boys and 2850 for girls.
– Our findings show that they have a 60-70 percent higher risk of developing kidney disease in adulthood. Our findings apply to both severe chronic kidney failure and earlier stage kidney disease, writes Gjerde in a column by Forskersonen.
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If you belong to this group, Gjerde recommends that you contact your GP for further tests.
– You can go a long way with kidney disease or high blood pressure without knowing it. But it is important to start treatment as soon as possible and follow up. So it’s a good idea to have your blood pressure and urine checked early by your GP, Gjerde says.
Not sure of your birth weight? If you were born after 1967, you can check it out at helsenorge.no. Birth weight is listed in the medical birth record.
Concerned about development
Together with Bjørn Egil Vikse, Gjerde is part of a research environment within kidney medicine at Helse Fonna. His findings on birth weight and kidney disease are now receiving a lot of attention.
Gjerde and his colleagues are concerned about the increase in kidney disease among Norwegians.
– Worldwide, between 10 and 15 percent have chronic kidney disease, and the number is increasing. It is a serious disease that requires treatment, Gjerde tells Nettavisen.
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Find the disturbing development and write the following in the article on Forskersonen:
– The number of severe outcomes has doubled since 2016. This worries us about development in the coming years, considering that we examine young people born after 1967.
By “severe outcomes” we mean those who have end-stage renal disease, where they are completely dependent on treatment to survive.
RESEARCHERS Anna Gjerde and Bjørn Egil Vikse’s research attracts international attention.
Photo: Tone Lütcherath (Haugesund newspaper)
Figures from the Medical Birth Registry in 2016 show that around 5 percent of those born (with a gestational age of at least 22 weeks) have low birth weight.
Low birth weight can be the result of several things. In Western countries, it is often due to smoking or obesity in the mother, the density of pregnancies in old age, or in vitro fertilization. It can also be due to premature delivery or poor placental function.
In non-Western countries, it is often due to malnutrition or infections.
Increased risk of various diseases.
Gjerde and Vikse’s research is also quite unique in that virtually no other country has the same medical records as Norway, according to the two.
– So we have good data that we can trust. Other countries cannot do this in the same way as us. We are all alone in this.
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Low birth weight not only increases the risk of kidney disease, but also cardiovascular disease, as well as type 2 diabetes.
– Some are in the risk group without knowing it. The kidneys develop in the mother’s womb, but if the baby doesn’t grow normally, neither do the kidneys. It can put extra pressure on them later in life because they didn’t develop as well as they could have. In adulthood, the kidneys do not tolerate much, Vikse tells Haugesunds Avis.
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