Kidney diseases have become a major global public health problem. Contemporary populations are exposed to a constellation of clinical risk factors, acting together with macroeconomic, social, environmental, and structural determinants, which favour the onset and accelerate the progression of disease. Chronic kidney disease (CKD), acute kidney injury (AKI), dialysis, and kidney transplantation substantially affect survival, quality of life, and health system performance. The rising prevalence of non-communicable diseases and population ageing, against a background of unequal access to timely nephrology care, amplifies this clinical and public health burden. Moreover, the ways in which the economic, social, and environmental context intersects with the organisation of health systems decisively shape who develops kidney disease, who receives optimal treatment, and how outcomes are distributed across countries.

A growing body of evidence shows that kidney diseases are closely linked to economic and social structures, as well as to environmental and climate-related stressors. Budgetary constraints, poverty, and insufficient health-care funding limit access to screening, dialysis, and transplantation, while social gradients in education, employment, housing, and access to services shape both risk exposure and the quality of care received. Exposure to heat stress, pollution, water scarcity, and occupational hazards further amplifies vulnerability. Yet clinical research, epidemiology, health economics, and the social and environmental sciences often evolve in parallel, leaving important gaps in understanding these interactions. This Research Topic seeks to integrate clinical, epidemiological, economic, social, and environmental perspectives to elucidate these interrelations and guide health policies.

Submissions should address, without being limited to, kidney disease and transplantation within population, economic, social, environmental and clinical perspectives:

1. Economic, social and environmental determinants of kidney diseases

2. Preventing, mitigating and reducing the burden of kidney disease

3. Public policies and health system organization

4. Clinical therapies and outcomes in kidney disease

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Kidney Disease: Crossroads of Population Health, Economic, Social and Clinical Determinants