Kidney Diseases (CKD), including acute glomerulonephritis, chronic kidney disease due to diabetes, and other chronic kidney diseases, are leading causes of mortality and disease burden in the Region of the Americas in 2019. For example, kidney diseases are ranked as the 8th cause of mortality, the 10th cause of years of life lost, and the 10th cause of disability-adjusted life years in both sexes combined, and one of the causes with the highest rate of increase in the Region.  

This visualization presents the level and trends of mortality and burden of kidney diseases by age, sex, and location (region, subregion, and country) in the Americas from 2000 to 2019.

Mortality

In 2019, regionwide kidney diseases account for:

  • 254,028 total deaths, 131,008  deaths in men, and 123,020 deaths in women.
  • The age-standardized death rate due to kidney diseases was estimated at 15.6 deaths per 100,000 population.
  • Age-standardized deaths rates from kidney diseases vary across countries from a high in Nicaragua (73.9 deaths per 100,000 population) to a low in Canada (5.0 deaths per 100,000 population).
  • For most countries, death rates from kidney diseases are higher in men than women.

The countries with the highest age-standardized death rates due to kidney diseases are:

  1. Nicaragua
  2. El Salvador
  3. Bolivia
  4. Guatemala
  5. Suriname
  6. Honduras
  7. Ecuador

Years of life lost (YLLs) due to premature mortality

In 2019, kidney diseases account for:

  • 5.2 million years of life lost, equivalent to 518.1 years per 100,000 population.
  • The absolute number of YLL due to premature death increased 73% from 3.0 million years in 2000.
  • The age-standardized YLL rates slightly increased in that period, from 373.4 years per 100,000 population in 2000 to 418.7 years per 100,000 population in 2019. 

The countries with the highest age-standardized YLLs rates are:

  1. El Salvador
  2. Nicaragua
  3. Guatemala
  4. Suriname
  5. Bolivia
  6. Honduras
  7. Haiti

Years lived with disability (YLDs)

In 2019, regionwide, kidney diseases account for:

  • 1.7 million years of life lived with disability, equivalent to 168 YLDs per 100,000 population.
  • The crude YLD rate increased from 124.7 years per 100,000 population in 2000 to 168.0 years per 100,000 population in 2019
  • Age-standardized YLD rates slightly decreased from 128.6 yaars per 100,000 population in 2000 to 144.1 years per 100,000 population in 2019.

The countries with the highest YLD rates (age-standardized) are:

  1. Mexico
  2. Nicaragua
  3. El Salvador
  4. Grenada
  5. Guatemala
  6. Guyana
  7. Belize
Suggested citation

PAHO. The burden of kidney diseases in the Region of the Americas, 2000-2019. Pan American Health Organization. 2021.

DATA CLASSIFICATION

In the map and horizontal bar chart, the data is presented in five classes created using the quantile classification method. Each class contains 20% of countries, which is easy to interpret. The quintile intervals are labeled sequentially from Quintile 1, also called the bottom quintile which includes the lowest fifth (0 to 20%) of data points to Quintile 5 (or top quintile), which includes the top fifth (80% to 100%) of data points.

INDICATOR DEFINITION

Measure: Death, Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs), Years Lived with Disability (YLDs), and Years of Life Lost (YLLs) due to premature death.  

Metric: Rate

Unit of Measure: For mortality measures: deaths per 100,000 population. For measures of burden of disease: years per 100,000 population 

Topic: Mortality and burden of disease

Rationale: Measuring how many people die each year and why they died is one of the most important means – along with gauging how diseases and injuries are affecting people – for assessing the effectiveness of a country’s health system. Statistics of causes of death and disability help inform public health policy and planning.

Definitions:

Kidney disease death rate: Number of deaths due to kidney diseases in a year, divided by the population and multiplied by 100 000.

DALY rate: Number of DALYs due to kidney diseases in a year, divided by the population and multiplied by 100 000.

YLD rate: Number of YLD due to kidney diseases in a year, divided by the population and multiplied by 100 000.

YLL rate: Number of YLL due to kidney diseases in a year, divided by the population and multiplied by 100 000.

Disaggregation: Age, Sex, Country, and Year.

The categories "All-ages, and Age-standardized included in the dimension Age, have the following meaning:

  • All-ages indicate that the death rate was computed by the aggregation of deaths from every age group, and the rate is crude (without removing the effect of age distribution across population groups or geographies).
  • Age-standardized indicates that the death rate refers to all ages but it has been age-standardized by the direct method using the WHO world standard population.

Method of estimation: Mortality and burden of disease measures by cause, age, sex, and location (countries, the region of the Americas, and subregions) were computed based on estimates of the absolute number of deaths, disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), years lived with disability (YLDs), and years of life lost (YLLs) due to premature mortality from the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Health Estimates 2019 (GHE). These data represent the best and most updated estimates of the WHO which have been computed using standard categories, definitions, and methods to ensure cross-country comparability, and may not be the same as official national estimates. 

Methodological details:

Data sources and methods for estimating causes of deaths and burden of diseases are described in the following documents

Method of estimation of the regional and subregional aggregates: Calculated by aggregating the country values (both numerator and the population) using population estimates from the World Population Prospects 2019, produced by the UN Population Division, as denominators.

Preferred data sources: Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) systems with complete coverage and medical certification of cause of death.

  1. WHO. WHO methods and data sources for country-level causes of death 2000-2019. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2020. Available online (accessed 1 February 2021).
  2. WHO. WHO methods and data sources for global burden of disease estimates, 2000-2019. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2020. Available online (accessed 1 February 2021).
  3. PAHO. Methodological Notes, NMH Data Portal. Pan American Health Organization. 2021.