According to results from a recent study published in Health Data Science, there is a positive correlation between smoking and chronic kidney disease (CKD). The authors noted that although the relationship is not considered a casual effect, covariates in which smoking is a risk factor (eg, hypertension, diabetes) can be factors leading to the onset of CKD. 1,2
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Prior research showed that smoking behavior or smoking status was associated with an elevated risk of CKD, though whether the association was “casual” was unknown. For this study, the investigators enrolled approximately 500,000 participants aged 40 to 69 years of age from the UK Biobank cohort. A traditional observational study was performed to assess the statistical association between smoking and CKD based on the…