About 37 million adults in the U.S. have chronic kidney disease (CKD), and another 33% of the population, or 1 in 3 adults, is at risk. To combat this dire threat, the National Kidney Foundation (NKF), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) are partnering to launch “Are You the 33%?,” a national public health campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of CKD and encourage people to take preventive action.*

Who’s at risk?

Certain health conditions and genetic traits put people at higher risk than others, including:

• diabetes
• hypertension
• heart disease
• obesity
• 60 years of age or older
• African, Hispanic, Native American, Asian, or Pacific Islander ethnicity

“[Kidney disease] affects more people than breast cancer or prostate cancer,” said actor and activist Wilmer Valderrama, whose family is affected by CKD and who is collaborating on the awareness-boosting campaign. “My family and I are taking this disease seriously.”

Why act now?

In addition to galvanizing individual citizens to learn more about CKD, get screened, and make healthy lifestyle choices, the partnership hopes to marshal the forces of the kidney community—patients, health professionals, and advocates—to brainstorm innovative approaches for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of chronic kidney disease.

Kidney disease has many causes and can strike people of any age. Fortunately, early intervention can make a difference.

But time is of the essence.

According to Anupam Agarwal, MD, FASN, president of ASN,  more than 90 percent of the 850 million people worldwide who have CKD are not even aware of it.

“This silent epidemic often strikes without symptoms,” Agarwal said. “Millions of people won’t know they have kidney disease until their kidneys stop working and it’s too late.”

*National Kidney Foundation. (2020, Mar. 2). Nationwide Kidney Risk Campaign Launched by NKF, HHS, and ASN.