Kidney disease disproportionately affects communities of color
UCI Health family medicine physician says lack of access to quality care impedes early diagnosis
August 19, 2024
IN THE NEWS: Kidney disease disproportionately impacts communities of color, according to the National Kidney Foundation. Black people are nearly four times more likely to have kidney failure than Caucasians, while Latinos are 1.3 times more likely.
UCI Health family medicine specialist Dr. Charles Vega spoke with Nephrology Times about the impact of such disparities in diagnosis and treatment.
"The main driver for CKD overall, but particularly among communities of color, is hypertension diabetes ... and folks from Latino backgrounds or other marginalized backgrounds don't have the same access to quality healthcare services. So, folks who may have had CKD present for 15 or 20 years are now being diagnosed in advanced stages of the disease. What we want to do is get more people in the door sooner so we can make a bigger difference."
For more than 25 years, Vega has seen patients at the UCI Health Family Health Center ― Santa Ana, the largest and oldest federally qualified health center in Orange County.
He is a professor of family medicine at UC Irvine School of Medicine and the director of the UC Irvine Program in Medical Education for the Latino Community (PRIME-LC) Family Medicine Residency.
Vega’s academic interests include access to quality care, compassionate medical care for underserved populations and developing training programs that promote this vision.
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