Low-protein diet is inversely related to the incidence of chronic kidney disease in middle-aged and older adults: results from a community-based prospective cohort study

Purpose Dietary protein intake can modulate renal health. However, the effect of dietary protein restriction on kidney function in the general population remains unclear. This study aimed to examine the association between total protein intake and new-onset chronic kidney disease (CKD) in Korean adults. Methods We included 7339 participants from the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study. Participants were divided into low-protein diet (LPD, < 0.8 g/kg/day), normal-protein diet (NPD, 0.8–1.3 g/kg/day), and high-protein diet (HPD, > 1.3 g/kg/day) groups. New-onset CKD was defined as two consecutive events of estimated glomerular filtration rate < 60 mL/min/1.73 m 2 . Multivariable Cox hazard regression analysis was conducted to examine the association of total protein intake with new-onset CKD. Subgroup analyses according to diabetes mellitus (DM) status were performed. We performed the same analyses by dividing participants into total protein, plant protein, and animal protein intake tertiles. Results During a median follow-up of 13.7 years, 633 (8.7%) participants newly developed CKD. The fully adjusted hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) for incident CKD of the LPD and HPD groups compared with the NPD group were 1.49 (1.18–1.87) and 0.63 (0.45–0.87), respectively. The HR (95% CI) of the highest tertile group of plant protein intake for incident CKD was 0.72 (0.54–0.93), compared with that of the lowest tertile group. Similar trends were observed only in the non-DM subgroup, not in the DM subgroup. Conclusion Protein intake, especially plant proteins, was negatively associated with the incidence of new-onset CKD in middle-aged and older Korean adults.