Gender Differences in Pharmacological and Clinical Associates of Kidney Disease

Objective: The objective of this study was to identify the pharmacological and clinical associates of kidney disease among males and females. Subjects and Methods: This is a cross-sectional retrospective study. All patients admitted to the Department of Internal Medicine at Al-Watani Hospital were included in the study. Medical data were obtained from patients’ medical records. Kidney disease was defined as a glomerular filtration rate (GFR) less than the published cutoff points. Males with GFR 64.25 ml/min and females with GFR 59.25 ml/min were designated as kidney group and those above were considered the reference group. GFR was estimated using Cockroft-Gault equation; χ2 and multiple logistic regressions were used to test for significance using statistical package for social sciences program. Results: Of the 340 patients, 185 (54.5%) were males and 155 (45.6%) females; mean age was 60.4 ± 17 years. Of the 185 males, 58 (31.4%) and of the 155 females, 41 (26.6%) had low GFR kidney disease. Stepwise forward multiple logistic regression in males identified age, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus (DM) as associates of low GFR. In females, DM and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE-I)/diuretic utilization were identified as significant associates of having low GFR. As the number of clinical conditions present in the patient increased, the odds ratio of having low GFR increased, in a similar and parallel way in both genders. Conclusion: Diabetes mellitus, but not hypertension or advancing age, was significantly associated with low GFR in both males and females. Utilization of the ACE-I/diuretic combination was significantly associated with low GFR among females but not males. Patients, regardless of gender, who had multiple clinical conditions, had higher risk of having low GFR.