Improving kidney failure risk calculations in minority ethnic groups
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Improving kidney failure risk calculations in ethnically diverse populations
IRAS ID
332873
Contact name
Mariam Molokhia
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 5 months, 31 days
Research summary
Around 1 in 15 UK adults have chronic kidney disease (CKD) and it is becoming more common. Some people progress to end stage kidney disease (ESKD) or kidney failure. This affects quality of life and increases the risk of death. To stay alive, people with ESKD need dialysis or a kidney transplant. People from non-White ethnic backgrounds are at least twice as likely as those from a White background to need dialysis or a kidney transplant.
The Kidney Failure Risk Equation (KFRE) uses age, sex, protein in the urine and how well the kidneys work, to predict a person’s risk of kidney failure. The NHS recommends the KFRE to doctors, but it does not work as well in some ethnic groups.
This study aims to compare how well different laboratory tests measure kidney function and if the KFRE should and can be improved to predict the chance of needing dialysis or a kidney transplant in different ethnic groups.
To do this, we will look at the role of other factors, such as other laboratory test results, health conditions, medications, and lifestyle factors, which can help predict risk. We will look at anonymous electronic health records from five areas across the United Kingdom, which have different ethnic populations and cover a total of 8 million people. We will link the records of people who have been diagnosed with chronic kidney disease to dialysis data from the UK Renal Registry in each of the five areas.
We will further see how the current KFRE and any updated one, predicts risk using CogStack, which is an information processing platform for secondary care datasets thus enabling KFRE validation in a secondary care setting.
REC name
North West - Greater Manchester Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/NW/0233
Date of REC Opinion
24 Jul 2025
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion