Association between Marital Status and Chronic Kidney Disease among Middle-Aged and Elderly Taiwanese: A Community-Based, Cross-Sectional Study

Background: The main aim of this study was to explore whether the risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD) varies by marital status among men and women aged 50 years and older in Taiwan. Methods: The study data were gathered from health exams in communities of northern Taiwan from January to October 2014. In this study, people who were divorced, separated, widowed, or never married were categorized as currently single. Those who lived with their mate regardless of married or not were categorized as currently couple. We used chi-square test and a multiple logistic regression model to evaluate the association between CKD and different marital status. Other factors for CKD, including sex, age, smoking, body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure (SBP), heart rate, fasting plasma glucose (FPG), triglyceride (TG), uric acid, occupation, and source of income were adjusted. Results: A total of 400 participants were enrolled in this study (35.3% male and 64.8% female), with a mean age of 64.47 ± 8.45 years. Among them, 19% (n = 76) were categorized as currently single. The prevalence of CKD was higher in single status (31.58%) than in couple status (17.59%) (p value = 0.01). Multiple logistic regression analysis indicated an independent association of marital status and CKD (odds ratio [OR] = 2.14, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.12-4.09, p = 0.02) after adjusting for other confounding factors. Conclusions: Marital status is associated with CKD in middle-aged and elderly Taiwanese population. Single status is an independent risk factor for CKD.