The Renal Diseases Epidemiology Program funds descriptive and analytic epidemiologic research, including development and analysis of surveillance databases, cross-sectional surveys, prospective observational studies, and case-control studies (for evaluating rare diseases).
Key areas of interest include preventing disease; developing early markers of injury; defining risk factors for morbidity and mortality; and increasing evaluation of kidney disease measurements and outcomes in ongoing observational studies.
The program is dedicated to increasing the availability of epidemiologic data through both development of new databases and full utilization of existing Federal, State, and private sources of data. The United States Renal Data System (USRDS) is funded under a contract through the Renal Diseases Epidemiology Program of NIDDK. Mechanisms are currently being developed to enhance the availability of USRDS data to the biomedical and health services research community. In addition, the program is working with the National Center for Health Statistics to develop and analyze the nephrology component measured in the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
For further information, contact Dr. Paul Eggers, Renal Diseases Epidemiology Program Director.
