The Expanding Burden of Acute Kidney Injury in California: Impact of the Epidemic of Diabetes on Kidney Injury Hospital Admissions.

Reducing the growing burden of acute kidney injury (AKI) is a real challenge. This article explores admissions and emergency visits of patients with AKI in California between 2005 and 2015. Data were drawn from California's Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) hospital dataset. Trend analyses, including comorbidities and spatiotemporal analysis, were conducted. AKI hospital episodes almost doubled between 2005 and 2015 (25,495 vs. 48,845, respectively); the growing trend was largely attributable to an increasing number of patients with co-existing CKD and diabetes or hypertension (2,511 vs. 25,098 in 2005 and 2015, respectively). We also found an increasingly positive spatiotemporal correlation between diabetes prevalence and AKI hospitalization rate over time. Based on results of this study, we identified modifiable targets to reduce the growing number of AKI episodes and the potential escalating health care costs.