Introduction:
Proteinuria is an established marker for kidney damage as well as cardiovascular related mortality. In Malaysia, the National Health Morbidity Survey (NHMS) in 2018 reported the prevalence of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) as 15.5% in 2018. However, CKD prevalence survey was not replicated in the NHMS 2023. Therefore, this study aimed to estimate the prevalence of proteinuria in our local population and identify risk factors that are associated with proteinuria.
Methods:
The analysis was based on cross-sectional data collected during a public health screening event during World Kidney Day 2024 celebration, held in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. Demographic information including age, gender, race, smoking status and education level were obtained through interviews. Objective parameters including, weight, height, body mass index, glucose level, Hba1c level, blood pressure, urine dipstick and lipid profile were measured by trained personnels. Data was analysed using SPSS Version 29.
Results:
A total of 72 participants were included in this study with 33 (45.8%) female and 39 (54.2%) male. Majority of the study participants were Malay, 47 (65.3%), followed by Chinese, 19 (26.4%), Indian, 3 (4.2%) and others, 3 (4.2%). %). Mean (± SD) for age, body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure was 37.91 (± 11.43) years, 23.47 (± 3.23), 117 mmHg (± 19.23) and 76 mmHg (± 9.99) respectively. Prevalence of proteinuria in this study population was 15.3% (11/72 patients). Among the 11 patients with proteinuria, 6 (8.33%) had no known medical illness. The remaining 5 patients (6.94%) had comorbidities namely hypertension, dyslipidaemia and post kidney transplant. While performing multivariate logistic regressions on the association between various risk factors and presence of proteinuria, no statistically significant risk factors were identified.
Conclusions:
The prevalence of proteinuria in this adult population was 15.3% and 8.3% of them did not have any underlying medical conditions. This underlined the importance of early screening in order to reduce rate of decline of kidney function. The sample size of this study might not be sufficient, but the proportion with proteinuria is certainly worrisome. Larger scale prevalence survey will be crucial to estimate kidney disease burden.
I have no potential conflict of interest to disclose.
I did not use generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process.