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(IANS) New research has thrown up some startling insights about the likelihood of middle-aged adults developing kidney failure during their lifetime. About one in 40 men and one in 60 women of middle age will develop kidney failure if they live into their 90s, says a study.

This translates into a 2.66 percent risk of kidney failure for men and a 1.76 percent risk for women. The risk is higher in people with reduced kidney function (men: 7.51 percent and women: 3.21 percent) compared with people with relatively preserved kidney function.

Kidney failure is on the rise and currently afflicts two million people worldwide. It takes a significant toll on both individuals and the public as a whole, causing poor health in patients and generating considerable health care costs, the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology reports.

Despite kidney failure's impact, researchers don't have a good estimate of people's likelihood of developing it over their lifetime.

Accordingly, from 1997 to 2008 Tanvir Chowdhury Turin and Brenda Hemmelgarn, from the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada and colleagues studied 2.89 million adult residents free of kidney failure at the start of the study.

"Given the high morbidity (prevalence of disease) and cost associated with kidney failure, we wanted to quantify the burden of disease for kidney failure in an easily understandable index to communicate information for patients, health practitioners, and policy makers," said Turin, according to a statement from Calgary university.

The lifetime risk of kidney failure is consistently higher for men at all ages and kidney function levels, compared with women, the researchers said.