A cohort study of chronic kidney disease (the 101th-104th year of the Republic Era)

In Taiwan, the number of patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is steadily increasing. According to the USRDS (the US Renal Data System) annual report in 2006, the incidence and prevalence of ESRD patients in Taiwan ranked the highest in the world. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is the 8th leading cause of death in Taiwan. ESRD patients here account for only 0.15% of the total population; however, we spend more than 7.2% of the annual national health insurance budget to provide them with adequate dialysis and needed care. Health care expenditure for ESRD patients has become a huge burden on our society. Facing these unprecedented challenges, we have to closely monitor renal replacement therapies to improve the quality of life for ESRD patients, and we also have to delineate the complicated mechanisms of CKD, then, to slow its progression and prevent it from occurring. To accomplish these tasks, domestic research based on reliable and long-term data collection is imperative. Thus, the main purpose of this proposal is to create a system to consolidate CKD-related data sources in Taiwan, process value-added CKD-related datasets, and provide clinicians and academic researchers with an integrated foundation for CKD research. By collaborating with the major teaching hospitals of Taiwan, we will build up a cohort for long-term epidemiological studies. The sample size of this designed cohort is 8,500. Basic demographics, information, and CKD-related biomarkers will be collected.