Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
An estimated 1 in 5 (18%) Indigenous adults (59,600 people) had biomedical signs of CKD, according to the ABS 2012–13 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Measures Survey.
Indigenous adults were twice as likely to have biomedical signs of CKD as non-Indigenous adults (22% and 10%, respectively), after taking into account differences in the age structure of the populations.
Treated end-stage kidney disease
Information on the prevalence and incidence of people with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) can be obtained from the Australia and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant Registry (ANZDATA). This registry includes people who receive kidney replacement therapy (KRT) in the form of a kidney transplant or dialysis, but does not contain information on those people with ESKD who do not receive KRT.
This section reports the incidence and trends of new patients with end-stage disease receiving KRT registered in the ANZDATA.
ESKD is the most severe form of chronic kidney disease. Only half of people with ESKD undertake KRT, as other strategies may be more suited for patients receiving end-of-life medical care (AIHW 2016).
In 2018, there were around 3,100 new cases of treated ESKD in Australia. This equates to 8 cases diagnosed every day, or an incidence rate of 11 cases per 100,000 population.
The leading causes of ESKD among new patients were:
- diabetes (38%)
- glomerulonephritis—a type of kidney inflammation (16%)
- hypertension (13%)
- polycystic disease—presence of multiple cysts in the kidney (6.6%).
Trends by age and sex
Age standardised incidence rates of treated ESKD have almost doubled from 6 persons per 100,000 population in 1989 to 11 persons per 100,000 in 2018. This increase was greater for males, from 6 cases per 100,000 population in 1989 to 15 cases per 100,000 in 2018, than for females, increasing from 5 to 8 cases per 100,000 population from 1989 to 2018 (Figure 3).
Since 2006, the incidence rate has remained largely unchanged among both males and females.