Kidney health inequalities require urgent action, says research charity

Stamping out kidney health inequalities should be “everyone’s responsibility” according to experts from Kidney Research UK after its new report suggests the time to act is now in regard to social and economic disparities.

The research charity’s Time To Act: A New Review of Kidney Health Inequalities report comes several years after the organisation’s last kidney health inequalities review, which made 27 recommendations — 10 broad research actions and 17 topic-specific research recommendations.

The latest publication says that progress has been made in relation to 2018 objectives, but there are also areas in which “additional consideration” is required.

Despite widespread awareness of the barriers that some people face, inequalities in a range of areas are still prominent according to the charity. This includes age, sex, education, location, and wealth.

The report makes its own series of recommendations across acute kidney injury, chronic kidney disease, intervention, and end stage kidney disease. These include to:

• undertake research to understand and overcome the barriers to proactive diagnosis, monitoring and treatment, particularly in areas of high socio-economic deprivation;
• identify ways to address the needs of those at greatest risk of chronic disease more effectively, with more evidence on fairness and equity and not just inequality and variation;
• include people with chronic kidney disease in clinical trials, whether commercial or investigator-led, by default; and
• understand ongoing barriers and approaches to supporting informed decision making about home therapies, addressing disadvantages arising from factors such as income, education, ethnicity, disability, geography, housing and/or health literacy.

Fundamentally, engagement with patients with diverse demographics and life experiences must underpin all research, according to Kidney Research UK.

“Kidney Research UK will continue to work tirelessly for patients by providing focused research investment,” said Liz Lightstone, who is a trustee at Kidney Research UK and professor of renal medicine at Imperial College London. “Wherever possible we will seek to fund research that tackles these issues, starting with the grants round we have opening at the end of this month.”

She added: “Eradicating unjust kidney health inequalities is an urgent priority and must become everyone’s responsibility, so that we can increase engagement and trust and deliver true change.

“Explicitly including kidney disease in government health strategies, programmes and action plans addressing health inequities, prevention, long-term conditions, multimorbidity and screening could make an enormous difference.”

Professor Bola Owolabi, NHS England’s health inequalities director, said: “As Kidney Research UK acknowledges, no single organisation, profession or sector can reduce kidney health inequalities. Agents of change must work together in their respective spheres of influence. The NHS, local and central government, third sector, academia and business must work together, and with vulnerable communities, to find the answers and make changes.

“All of us can contribute something to the solution, and we must all embrace our agency to act.”

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