BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: There have been doubts about the association between nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug use and worsening kidney function, and whether there is a difference between risks of individual nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs is presently unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the association between nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug exposure and the risk of incident eGFR <60 ml/min per 1.73 m2 and compare the risks between nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug subtypes in the Chinese population. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS: From 2008 to 2017, a total of 1,982,488 subjects aged 18 years or older with baseline eGFR ≥60 ml/min per 1.73 m2 were enrolled in this retrospective cohort study. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression adjusted for each patient's baseline characteristics was adopted to examine the association between nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug and incident eGFR <60 ml/min per 1.73 m2 or eGFR decline ≥30% with reference to baseline. RESULTS: After a median follow-up duration of 6.3 (interquartile range, 3.3-9.4) years, 271,848 cases (14%) of incident eGFR <60 ml/min per 1.73 m2 and 388,386 (21%) events of eGFR decline ≥30% were recorded. After adjusting for each patient's baseline characteristics, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug treatment was shown to be associated with a significantly higher risk of incident eGFR <60 ml/min per 1.73 m2 (hazard ratio, 1.71; 95% confidence interval, 1.67 to 1.75) and eGFR decline ≥30% (hazard ratio, 1.93; 95% confidence interval, 1.89 to 1.96) when compared with no nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, with etoricoxib exhibiting the highest risk of eGFR<60 ml/min per 1.73 m2 (hazard ratio, 3.12; 95% confidence interval, 2.69 to 3.62) and eGFR decline ≥30% (hazard ratio, 3.11; 95% confidence interval, 2.78 to 3.48) and ibuprofen displaying the lowest risk of eGFR<60 ml/min per 1.73 m2 (hazard ratio, 1.12; 95% confidence interval, 1.02 to 1.23) and eGFR decline ≥30% (hazard ratio, 1.32; 95% confidence interval, 1.23 to 1.41). CONCLUSIONS: Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug exposure was associated with higher risks of incident eGFR <60 ml/min per 1.73 m2 and eGFR decline ≥30%. Highest risk was observed in etoricoxib users, and lowest risk was with ibuprofen. PODCAST: This article contains a podcast at https://www.asn-online.org/media/podcast/CJASN/2021_04_28_CJN18501120.mp3
