High potassium intake lowers CKD risk

Individuals with a higher intake of potassium are less likely to develop chronic kidney disease (CKD), according to a population-based prospective study.

Investigators tried to determine whether potassium intake correlated with outcomes of incident CKD. They included a total of 317,162 participants without CKD using the UK Biobank cohort.

Spot urine potassium-to-creatinine ratio (KCR) was the main predictor, while the primary outcome was incident CKD, as defined by the International Classification of Disease 10 codes or Operating Procedure Codes Supplement 4 codes.

Individuals with higher KCR showed lower blood pressure, body mass index, and inflammation at baseline. They were also less likely to be diagnosed with diabetes and hypertension. Of the participants, 15,246 (4.8 percent) developed CKD during a median follow-up of 11.9 years.

The adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) for incident CKD was 0.90 (95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.89‒0.92) for every 1-standard deviation increase in KCR based on the cause-specific model. The aHRs for quartiles 2‒4 of KCR were 0.98 (95 percent CI, 0.94‒1.02), 0.90 (95 percent CI, 0.86‒0.95), and 0.80 (95 percent CI, 0.76‒0.84), respectively, relative to quartile 1.

Sensitivity analysis with different CKD definitions revealed similar results. In further analysis, incident CKD showed a negatively graded association with dietary potassium intake.

“Higher urinary potassium excretion and intake were associated with a lower risk of incident CKD,” according to the investigators.