Kidney disease and its risk factors among Nigerians: Report of the World Kidney Day 2022 National Screening Programme

Abstract

Background

The burden of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is more enormous in low and middle-income regions of the world compared to high-income regions. The knowledge of the national prevalence is crucial to drive and support evidence-based advocacy for policies that will alleviate the burden of CKD. Using the vehicle of the World Kidney Day (WKD) we set out to determine the prevalence of CKD and its risk factors in a nationally representative sample.

Methods

This was a cross-sectional study of Nigerians from all six geopolitical zones of the country, involving 36 public and private medical facilities, which served as screening centres for the communities they serve, during the WKD 2022 activities. Awareness campaigns, health education and screening for CKD and its risk factors were undertaken. Estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was calculated using the CKD-EPI formula, while freshly voided urine was obtained for dipstick urinalysis. An eGFR <60mls/min/1.73m² was considered to indicate kidney dysfunction. A random effects model was used to obtain the pooled prevalence of kidney dysfunction after transformation of the individual proportions using the Freeman-Tukey transformation.

Results

A total of 4313 participants were screened. The mean age was 43.07±13.35 years, while the overall female proportion was 60.35%. The pooled prevalence of kidney dysfunction was 13.7% (95%CI 11.1 – 16.5%), while 46.7%, 7.42%, 24.07 and 19.75% of the participants had hypertension, DM, obesity, and proteinuria, respectively.

 Conclusion

There is a high prevalence of kidney dysfunction among adult Nigerians, and hypertension, DM, and obesity were the leading risk factors for CKD identified in the population.