Acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease in Chile: Temporal trends in hospitalization rates from 2010 to 2019

Background: Kidney diseases pose considerable challenges to health systems affecting millions of people worldwide. In Latin America there are limited epidemiological studies on these conditions. Objective: This study aimed to describe the national age-adjusted hospitalization trends for acute kidney injury (AKI) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) in the Chilean population. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study using a secondary data from hospitalized cases diagnosed with AKI and CKD in Chile, from 2010 to 2019. Age-adjusted hospitalization rates and JoinPoint regression analysis were performed. Results: Between 2010 and 2019, 26,715 hospitalizations of patients diagnosed with AKI and 99,816 patients with CKD were recorded. Nationally, long-term trends in age-adjusted hospitalization rates for AKI increased by 9.1% annually (95% CI: 8.0 to 10.5), whereas CKD hospitalization rates declined by 4.35% (95% CI: −5.76 to −2.99) over the study period. Short-term trends in AKI hospitalization rates showed initial declines in Maule between 2010–2017 (−7.97%, 95% CI: −13.63 to −6.04) followed by increases from 2017 to 2019 (8.45%, 95% CI: −4.08 to 17.66), whereas Valparaíso (7.2%, 95% CI: 5.2 to 9.5) experienced steady growth. Although CKD rates generally declined, central regions such as O’Higgins and Maule showed increases between 2016–2019 (10.6%, 95% CI: 5.1 to 19.9) and 2017–2019 (8.5%, 95% CI: −4.1 to 17.7), respectively. Conclusion/Interpretation: This study highlights AKI as a growing public health challenge nationwide, with increasing hospitalization rates. At the same time, CKD hospitalizations show a reduction, although regional disparities remain a concern. Efforts should focus on enhanced integral surveillance to address these trends effectively across the country.