The number of living people choosing to donate one of their kidneys to someone else is on the rise. Now a new study has found that this type of kidney donation is safe for older adults.

According to US scientists, as a result of the links between age, heart disease and kidney disease, it was feared that the removal of a kidney could give older donors an increased risk of heart problems or premature death.

However, the findings show that healthy, older donors can expect to have similar heart health and a similar lifespan as their peers.

Of the 185 kidney transplants that took place in Ireland last year, a record one in five came from living donors.

"For too long, when we counseled older people who were considering kidney donation, we were not able to give them good information about their future risk of heart disease. The problem was that prior studies that examined cardiovascular outcomes did not have many older donors. Now we have a reassuring answer," commented Dr Peter Reese of the University of Pennsylvania.

This marked the first study to focus on the safety of donating a kidney among older people.

The scientists matched over 3,300 older donors with the same number of healthy non-donors and followed their progress for an average of almost eight years.

They found that death rates were no different between the donors and non-donors. Furthermore, donors did not have an increased risk of developing diabetes, which is a risk factor for heart and kidney disease.

"Transplant centers everywhere should provide this new information to older individuals considering kidney donation. These individuals should learn that donation is unlikely to increase their risk of death or heart disease in a meaningful way," Dr Reese said.

Details of these findings are published in the American Journal of Transplantation.