Dietary plant proteins offer kidney protective benefit

Consuming dietary plant protein in high amounts helps lower the risk of developing chronic kidney disease (CKD), as reported in a study.

The study included 117,809 participants from the UK Biobank study who had an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) of at least 60 ml/min/1.73 m², a urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR) of not more than 30 mg/g, and no history of CKD. All participants completed more than one dietary questionnaire, the data from which were used to estimate daily plant protein intake in g/kg/day.

Over a median follow-up of 9.9 years, CKD occurred in 3,745 participants (3.2 percent), translating to an incidence rate of 3.2 per 1,000 person-years.

Multivariable cause-specific proportional hazards analysis showed that compared with the lowest quartile of plant protein intake, the second, third, and fourth quartiles were associated with a reduced risk of incident CKD (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 0.90, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.82–0.99; aHR, 0.83, 95 percent CI, 0.75–0.92; and aHR, 0.82, 95 percent CI, 0.73–0.93, respectively).

When modelled as a continuous variable, every 0.1 g/kg/day increase in plant protein intake corresponded to a 4-percent reduction in the risk of incident CKD (aHR, 0.96, 95 percent CI, 0.93–0.99).

The beneficial association between plant protein intake and CKD risk was consistent in secondary analyses in which CKD was defined based on codes or two consecutive measures of eGFR <60 ml/min/1.73 m², or on UACR >30 mg/g. Results were robust across various sensitivity analyses.

The study was limited by potential incompleteness of dietary assessments and the limited generalizability due to the characteristics of participants in the UK Biobank study.