When race was removed from an equation used to calculate a metric associated with kidney disease, 5 million patients had their disease severity reclassified, according to a study published Feb. 15 in JAMA Network Open.
Usually when assessing chronic kidney disease, a patient's glomerular filtration rate is estimated. The 2009 algorithm to assess this takes age, sex, race and creatine level into account, but the use of race in the algorithm has been questioned for contributing to health inequity. Given that Black people are four times more likely to suffer from kidney failure than white people, the algorithm presents a serious issue.
The study used a new equation created in 2021, one that didn't take race into account, when calculating chronic kidney disease severity. Using data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the new calculation shifted the severity of 5.5 million patients. One million Black patients were shifted into a more severe category, and 4.5 million non-Black patients were shifted into a less severe category.