Racial and Ethnic Differences in Chronic Kidney Disease and Its Risk Factors among Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders in Hawaii

Abstract

Background: Several studies suggest that Asian-American and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander (NHOPI) racial/ethnic groups have a heightened risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD), but provide limited inference due to the aggregation of these groups into a single racial/ethnic category. We thus examined the association of granularly defined racial/ethnic groups with specific CKD indicators among a diverse group of participants from the National Kidney Foundation of Hawaii’s Kidney Early Detection Screening (KEDS) Program. Methods: Among 1,243 participants enrolled in 19 KEDS screening events over 2006–2009, we examined the association between Asian-American and NHOPI groups and specific CKD indicators, defined as self-reported CKD, microalbuminuria, and macroalbuminuria, using multivariable logistic regression. We then examined associations of race/ethnicity with various CKD risk factors. Results: The most predominant racial/ethnic groups were White (22.0%), Multiracial (18.9%), Japanese (19.2%), Filipino (13.4%), NHOPI (8.4%), and Chinese (4.5%) participants. NHOPI and Chinese participants had a higher risk of microalbuminuria (adjusted ORs [aORs] [95% CIs] 2.48 [1.25–4.91] and 2.37 [1.07–5.27], respectively), while point estimates for all other minority groups suggested higher risk (reference: Whites). NHOPI participants also had a higher risk of macroalbuminuria and self-reported CKD. While most minorities had a higher risk of diabetes and hypertension, NHOPI and Multiracial participants had a higher risk of obesity, whereas the East Asian groups had a lower risk. Conclusions: In this community-based cohort, compared with Whites, Asian-Americans had a higher risk of early CKD indicators, whereas NHOPIs had a higher risk of more severe CKD indicators. Further studies are needed to elucidate the distinct pathways leading to CKD across diverse racial/ethnic groups in Hawaii.