A study published in Diabetes Care show that ethnicity is a risk factor in people with type 1 diabetes developing kidney disease.
The findings also indicate that people of African-Caribbean heritage living with diabetes have nearly a 60% greater risk of advanced kidney disease. It is believed to be the first study in type 1 diabetes to describe the impact of ethnicity on kidney function loss.
Lead author Dr Janaka Karalliedde, pictured left, from King’s College, London, wrote that African-Caribbean people with type 1 diabetes are at nearly 60 percent higher risk of losing more than half of their kidney function and that this loss also occurs faster.
Although it is known that ethnicity is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes and kidney disease, not much is known about whether ethnicity is a risk factor for kidney complications of type 1 diabetes.
Further studies are needed to understand the exact reasons for this increased risk of kidney disease in African-Caribbean people with type 1 diabetes.
Researchers from King’s College London had looked at more than 5,000 people with type 1 diabetes.