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Too Few Obese Young Adults Know They Have Kidney Disease

Not enough physicians warning patients of their risk for chronic kidney disease

THURSDAY, May 26, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Many obese young adults in the United States don’t know they’re at increased risk for kidney disease, according to research published online May 25 in PLOS ONE.

Michal Melamed, M.D., an associate professor of medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, and colleagues analyzed data from 6,918 adults, aged 20 to 40, across the United States.

The researchers found that 11.6 percent of obese Mexican-Americans, and 5.6 and 6.6 percent of obese whites and blacks, respectively, had albuminuria. Among young adults with albuminuria, less than 5 percent had been told they had kidney disease.

“Clearly, clinicians and public health officials need to do more to identify and treat young people at risk for early progressive kidney disease so they can adopt the behavioral changes to prevent chronic kidney disease from occurring,” Melamed said in an Albert Einstein news release.

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