Patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) have an increased prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD), according to a study published online Oct. 14 in BMC Gastroenterology.

Juping Chen, from the Zhejiang University School of Medicine in Hangzhou, China, and colleagues conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to examine the prevalence of CKD and its associated factors among patients with CHB. The analysis included 41 studies; 30 were deemed high-quality.

The studies included 1,066,919 patients with CHB, 44,021 of whom were diagnosed with CKD. The researchers found that the risk for CKD was significantly elevated in populations with CHB compared with non-hepatitis B controls in a meta-analysis (odds ratio, 2.30). Subgroup analyses showed the highest prevalence in studies published from 2021 to 2024 (11.48%); a numerically but not significantly higher prevalence was seen in patients aged 50 years and older versus younger patients (21.87% versus 4.68%) and in patients with versus those without diabetes (17.78% versus 1.52%).

Compared with other criteria, CKD prevalence was significantly higher when diagnosed by persistent estimated glomerular filtration rate 2 (12.20%). Compared with untreated counterparts, antiviral-treated patients showed higher prevalence (11.37% versus 4.09%). Age, diabetes status, and antiviral treatment were identified as sources of heterogeneity.

“These findings suggest that age and diabetes may be important risk factors for the occurrence of CKD in CHB patients, but larger sample sizes are needed for further validation,” the authors write.

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