Introduction:
Kidney disease has remained a public health problem with rising prevalence and mortality, The need for early detection cannot be overemphasised. Screening for kidney disease and its risk factors has been advocated as a means of early identification, treatment and prevention of kidney disease progression to end stage. Unfortunately, in resource-poor settings, absence of comprehensive health insurance coverage precludes screening. Free community screening during World Kidney Day (WKD) celebration has been adopted by many nephrology associations but with significant cost implications on the organizers. We present the findings of WKD community screening for kidney disease and its risk factors as part of our International Society of Nephrology (ISN) Sister Renal Centre Partnership programme activities.
Methods:
Community WKD screening for kidney disease and its risk factors were done annually in 2020, 2022 and 2023. Target population screened aligned with the ISN WKD celebration themes. Data was collected using a uniform questionnaire from the Nigerian Association of Nephrology. Any participant with body mass index (BMI) of 25-29.9 or ≥30kg/m2 was categorized as being overweight or obese respectively. Hypertension was diagnosed as previous history of hypertension or systolic and/or diastolic blood pressure ≥140 and 90mmHg respectively. Diabetes was diagnosed based on previous diagnosis of diabetes or random blood glucose ≥200mg/dL. Proteinuria was assessed using Combi-10 dipstick urinalysis strips. P-value <0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.
Results:
There were 1247 participants but 855 had complete data for analysis. Males were 196(22.9%) and females 659(77.1%). Participants were aged 12-78 years with overall mean age of 41.93±11.51 (males: 43.18±13.27, females: 41.56±10.92) years. 93.5% of the participants were aged 20-59 years. Participants who were for the first time being screened for kidney disease and its risk factors were 607(71%). Overweight and obesity were noted in 35.5% and 43% of participants respectively. 33(3.9%), 153(17.9%) and 185(21.6%) participants were smokers, used skin lightening cosmetics and herbal concoction correspondingly.
The prevalence of diabetes was 5.8% with 40% of these being first-time diagnosis. Hypertension was noted in 342(40%) of the participants with 134(39%) of them being unaware they had hypertension. Proteinuria was noted in 314 (35.4%) participants. Presence of proteinuria was significantly associated with male gender (p=0.049), use of herbal concoction (p=0.021), presence of hypertension (p=0.031) and first time screening (p=<0.001).
Conclusions:
Proteinuria and kidney disease risk factors were prevalent in this report. Worse still, majority of the participants were unaware they had these. Thus, community screening for kidney disease sand its risk factors should be encouraged for early detection of kidney disease and its risk factors, appropriate referral and management.
I have no potential conflict of interest to disclose.
I did not use generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process.