A person's chance of developing kidney failure later in life can be predicted using certain measurements taken in adolescence, Swedish researchers have found.

They looked at over 5,500 men who underwent physical examinations in the 1970s, when they were healthy 18 or 19-year-olds. When the men were in their 50s, they were assessed again and over 500 of them were found to have end-stage kidney disease.

End-stage kidney disease is the most severe type of chronic kidney disease. With this condition, the kidneys have, over time, lost their ability to perform as well as they used to. This leads to a build-up of toxins in the blood. The disease can range from mild to the most severe - end-stage kidney disease - which usually requires dialysis and/or a kidney transplant.

The researchers found that if teenagers had high blood pressure, were overweight, had elevation of a blood marker indicating inflammation, or proteinuria (protein in the urine), they were more likely to develop end-stage kidney disease later in life.

"We were surprised by the magnitude of the risk, especially for individuals with unexplained proteinuria in adolescence. This shows that silent kidney damage is already occurring in teenagers who won't develop more noticeable symptoms of kidney disease for many years," noted the study's lead author, Dr Per-Ola Sundin, of Örebro University Hospital in Sweden.

The study found that teenagers with proteinuria had a seven-fold increased risk of developing end-stage kidney disease later in life, while those with high blood pressure were at four times the risk.

Those who were obese (a BMI of more than 30) were three-and-a-half times more likely to develop the disease later in life, while those who had inflammation found by testing for a specific marker in the blood had twice the risk.

The researchers said that while this study involved men, there is no reason why the results would not apply to women and people in other industrialised countries.

"These results suggest that there is a screening opportunity at an early age if we want to prevent chronic kidney disease. Particularly, proteinuria without an explanation should be followed up by doctors and patients.

"Also, it is never too early to tackle issues like unhealthy weight gain and high blood pressure as it may be much harder to begin a healthy lifestyle in later adulthood. How you live as a teenager has consequences for your health in middle age," Dr Sundin said.

Details of these findings are published in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases.