A report given at the 43rd Annual Meeting and Science Exposition held by the American Society of Nephrology reveals that maternal weight and health conditions could be a primary cause for chronic kidney disease in children. According to researchers, mothers who were obese during gestation or those who suffered from gestational diabetes are more likely to have children with chronic kidney disease.

Researchers pulled data from 4,000 children who were diagnosed with chronic kidney disease before the age of 21. The children were compared to more than 20,000 peers of the same age group that were not diagnosed with chronic kidney disease. The overall rate of disease in children was about 1 in 400 births. Researchers then took the gestational age into consideration which created a shocking result. About 69% of chronic kidney disease child patients were born to mothers with diabetes prior to becoming pregnant. If the mother developed gestational diabetes during pregnancy, children were at a 28% increase of kidney disease. When mothers were obese, the increased rate of kidney disease was 22%.

When all data was pooled, study authors realized that mothers with diabetes before pregnancy were at the greatest risk of having children who suffered from chronic kidney disease. Gestational diabetes and maternal obesity did increase risk, but not on the level of pre-pregnancy diabetes. The study information was pulled from hospital records. The information used for the presentation is being analyzed a second time using a stricter definition for chronic kidney disease in an effort to fine tune the results.

Source: Christine W Hsu MD, Kalani Yamamoto MD, Rohan Henry MD, Jordan Symons MD, Anneclaire De Roos PhD. American Society of Nephrology. 20 November, 2010.