Chronic Kidney Disease Japan Cohort

Background

The number of Japanese patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) has increased over the last four decades; in 2006, the number of ESKD patients on chronic hemodialysis exceeded 260,000. Patients with ESKD are at risk of developing various complications, the quality of life (QOL) and the life expectancy is significantly worse in ESKD patients compared with healthy individuals.

This cost explosion for ESKD is not only a regional but also a global issue, requiring the implementation of local prevention programs for chronic kidney disease (CKD) in concert with physicians, health care workers, and government. Early detection and appropriate treatment for CKD is necessary to decrease the number of ESKD patients and related costs.

On the other hand, the Kidney Diseases Improving Global Outcome (KDIGO) program was established in 2003 by an international board of directors, with a stated mission of improving the care and outcomes of kidney disease patients. This definition simplifies diagnosis and helps to increase public awareness of kidney disease. In addition, the world kidney day was advocated by Dr. Allan Colloins of National Kidney Foundation (NKF) in 2005, and a worldwide approach concerning a CKD measures is begun.

In Japan, The Japanese Society of Nephrology, The Japanese Society for Dialysis Therapy, and The Japanese Society for Pediatric Nephrology cooperated, and "The Association of Chronic kidney Disease Initiative" was started up, and a real activity in the CKD was started.

However, the evidence concerning the chronic kidney disease patient in Japan, especially the epidemiological data is insufficient. Therefore, Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., Ltd. considered the necessity and importance, for the purpose to support those activities, it decided to execute the CKD-JAC study.

Study Hypothesis

The study hypothesis of CKD-JAC is that CKD patient's comorbidity, several clinical and social background and actual treatment influence patients prognosis and outcome such as deterioration of kidney function (decrease of GFR and introduction of dialysis), development of cardiovascular disease and death in CKD patients. In addition, we will study whether the burden of CKD decreases the QOL of patients, and increases hospitalization or health resource utilization.