COVID raises kidney risk
A recent study finds COVID‑19 infection carries significantly higher odds of acute kidney injury and future chronic kidney disease compared with influenza, reinforcing the need for renal monitoring after infection (healio.com). Clinicians are being urged to track kidney function post‑COVID to catch progressive decline early (healio.com).
The paper was published online in Communications Medicine and lists Yue Zhang and Nasrollah Ghahramani of Penn State College of Medicine as lead authors; the article appears with DOI 10.1038/s43856-026-01460-6. (nature.com) Researchers analyzed three U.S. cohorts totaling about 3.02 million commercially insured adults: 939,241 with COVID‑19, 199,071 with influenza and 1,878,482 in a no‑infection negative control group (mean age COVID cohort 41.3 years; 47.3% men). (healio.com) After multivariable adjustment the study reported adjusted hazard ratios for COVID versus influenza of 2.74 for acute kidney injury (95% CI 2.61–2.87), 1.38 for chronic kidney disease (95% CI 1.32–1.45) and 3.22 for end‑stage kidney disease (95% CI 2.67–3.88). (medrxiv.org) By contrast, influenza showed only a modest association with short‑term AKI (aHR 1.24, 95% CI 1.11–1.38) and no statistically significant effect on CKD or ESRD (CKD aHR 1.03; ESRD aHR 0.84). (medrxiv.org) The analysis used MarketScan commercial claims from January 2020 through December 2021, identified cases by ICD‑10 codes, and estimated risks with multivariable stratified Cox proportional‑hazards models adjusted for demographics, comorbidities and medication history. (medrxiv.org) Coauthors and institutional statements say the findings support longer and more frequent post‑infection renal monitoring for people with COVID‑19, especially those with diabetes or hypertension, and that COVID‑19 history should be considered in kidney‑disease risk prediction. (healio.com) The paper and accompanying Penn State materials note the study excluded individuals with baseline kidney outcomes from incident‑disease analyses and that the team has previously incorporated COVID history into machine‑learning risk models for kidney disease. (medrxiv.org)
