Health Disparities in Kidney Disease — Emerging Data from the Human Genome

Racial disparity in end-stage renal disease in the United States is well documented; hypertensive kidney disease has long been considered to be a leading cause of this disorder among black patients. The overall incidence of end-stage renal disease is 3.5 to 5 times as high among black patients as among white patients.1 Overall, nondiabetic chronic kidney disease afflicts black patients disproportionately. In one study, the rate of nephropathy associated with human immunodeficiency virus infection among black patients was 50 times that among white patients.2 Research into health disparities has focused on the basis of these differences for more than 20 . . .