The following is a summary of “Impact of a vegetarian diet on chronic kidney disease (CKD) progression – a systematic review,” published in the June 2023 issue of Nephrology by Świątek et al.

A vegetarian diet is a healthy alternative as it helps with cardiovascular health. Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is a significant issue that leads to 1.5% of global deaths. Researchers performed a systematic review to investigate the potential impact of a vegetarian diet on kidney function in CKD patients.

They focused on randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing the effects of a vegetarian diet (experimental) and a standard omnivore diet (comparator) on the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) in CKD patients. The PICO criteria guided, with dual researcher Cochrane and Pubmed search with PRISMA 2020 checklist and flow diagram utilized. Search terms included a ‘vegetarian diet’ and ‘nephropathy,’ ‘eGFR,’ ‘albuminuria,’ and ‘chronic kidney disease.’ Assessed bias using the RoB 2 tool to validate collected data.

The results showed four RCTs (346 participants) included in the systematic review. The two largest RCTs showed increased eGFR (P=0.01 and P=0.001). The other two found no significant differences; these trials had high bias risk (missing data, randomization).

Investigators concluded vegetarian diet improves renal filtration function in CKD patients, requiring further research on its impact.

Source: bmcnephrol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12882-023-03233-y