The Study
Protein Intake and Mortality in Older Adults With Chronic Kidney Disease
This study looked at what people ate and who lived longer, but it didn’t make anyone change their diet. So we can’t say eating more protein definitely helps people live longer—maybe healthier people just happen to eat more protein. It’s like noticing that people who carry umbrellas don’t get sick as often—it doesn’t mean umbrellas prevent colds.
Analysis score
Maximum 72 for a cohort study.
Where the score came from
Older people with mild kidney problems were tracked for 10 years to see if eating more protein helped or hurt them.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 552 / 100
Quality score
Groups of people are followed over time to see who develops an outcome. Strong for identifying risk factors and associations, but cannot prove causation as firmly as RCTs.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes — for older adults with mild kidney disease, eating more protein than doctors usually recommend may actually help them live longer, without harming their kidneys in the short term.
- 2Those who ate more protein (1.0–1.6 grams per kg of body weight daily) were 12% to 33% less likely to die over 10 years.
- 3Both plant and animal protein helped equally.
- 4Eating more protein didn’t raise death risk, even above current guidelines.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
JAMA Network Open
Year
2024
Authors
A. Carballo-Casla, C. Avesani, G. Beridze, R. Ortolá, E. García-Esquinas, E. López-García, L. Dai, Michelle M. Dunk, P. Stenvinkel, Bengt Lindholm, J. Carrero, F. Rodríguez‐Artalejo, D. Vetrano, A. Calderón-Larrañaga
Related Content
Claims (7)
Eating a high-protein diet does not make chronic kidney disease worsen faster in people with mild to moderate kidney impairment.
People who consume more dietary protein, especially from plants and seafood, have a lower rate of chronic kidney disease compared to those who consume less.
Older adults with mild to moderate chronic kidney disease who eat more fish and cereal protein have lower death rates than those who eat less, while eating more dairy or meat protein does not change death rates.
Older adults with mild to moderate chronic kidney disease who consume 1.00 to 1.60 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight daily have a 12% to 33% lower risk of dying from any cause over 10 years compared to those who consume less, when accounting for age, sex, other health conditions, and diet.
In older adults, consuming more protein is linked to a lower risk of death, and this link is stronger in those without chronic kidney disease than in those with mild to moderate kidney disease, with a 15% greater reduction in death risk for every additional 0.20 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day.
In older adults with mild to moderate chronic kidney disease, eating more protein than current guidelines recommend does not lead to a higher risk of death.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.