Article Impact Level: HIGH Data Quality: STRONG Summary of Frontiers in Nutrition https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2025.1701077 Dr. Xiaohua Lin et al.
Points
- Researchers found that hypertension-related chronic kidney disease caused by elevated body mass index resulted in nearly one hundred eighty thousand deaths and over four million disability adjusted life years in 2021.
- Global data spanning from 1990 to 2021 shows that mortality rates associated with obesity related renal failure have increased by over three hundred ninety percent during the last three decades.
- While physical inactivity contributes to a smaller portion of the total disease burden, the associated mortality and disability rates have still demonstrated significant and substantial growth across all global regions.
- The overall burden of this metabolic disease increases significantly with age and reaches its peak among patients who are eighty years and older with maximal rates occurring after age ninety five.
- Predictive models suggest that the burden of hypertension related chronic kidney disease will continue to escalate through 2050 unless global health systems implement targeted interventions for obesity and physical activity.
Summary
This study analyzed Global Burden of Disease 2021 data to quantify the longitudinal global burden of hypertension-related chronic kidney disease (HT-CKD) attributable to elevated body mass index (BMI) and physical inactivity. Utilizing data spanning 1990 to 2021, researchers assessed historical trends and employed autoregressive integrated moving average models to project disease trajectories through 2050. The analysis underscores HT-CKD as a significant public health threat driven by modifiable metabolic risk factors that exhibit pronounced demographic and geographic disparities.
In 2021, HT-CKD attributable to elevated BMI accounted for 179,788 deaths and 4.26 million disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) globally. Since 1990, these figures represent substantial increases of 392.9% and 322.2%, respectively. Low physical activity contributed to 4,479 deaths and 77,879 DALYs in the same period. For both metabolic drivers, the age-standardized rates (ASRs) for mortality and DALYs showed statistically significant upward global trends. Overall disease burden increased with advancing age, with mortality peaking in patients aged 80 years and older and maximal ASRs recorded in those aged 95 and above.
Projections from 2022 to 2050 indicate a sustained rise in HT-CKD burden, particularly for cases driven by elevated BMI. Exponential smoothing models suggest that without targeted public health interventions, the global mortality and DALY rates associated with these metabolic drivers will continue to escalate. BMI remains the primary contributor to HT-CKD morbidity, necessitating clinical strategies focused on obesity management and physical activity promotion to mitigate the projected longitudinal surge in hypertension-induced renal failure
Link to the article: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2025.1701077/full
References
Lin, X., Miao, K., Huang, K., Xu, Y., & Wang, Y. (2026). Global burden and trends of hypertension-related chronic kidney disease attributable to high body mass index or low physical activity: An analysis based on global burden of disease study 2021 data. Frontiers in Nutrition, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2025.1701077
