Epidemiology fundamentally aims to elucidate the distribution and determinants of disease in specified populations.1 An epidemiologic approach is particularly well suited to the study of diseases lacking a single root cause, in which a constellation of genetic, epigenetic, demographic, and environmental factors converge to enable disease expression. Although novel genetic and molecular defects predisposing to glomerular disease development have recently been elucidated,2,3 representing major breakthroughs in the field, the demographic predilections and environmental triggers that regulate disease onset and progression remain poorly understood.