Epidemiology of chronic kidney disease in a Sri Lankan population : experience of a Tertiary Care Center

Abstract EN

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a growing problem in Sri Lanka.

Diabetes and hypertension are the main contributors to the disease burden.

A new form of CKD of uncertain etiology (CKD-u) is the predominant form of CKD in certain parts of Sri Lanka, threatening to reach epidemic proportions.

A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out over a three-month period at the National Hospital of Sri Lanka to identify the underlying etiologic factors for the disease in a cohort of patients with CKD.

A total of 200 patients were studied with a mean age of 50.57 years.

Of them, 108 (54 %) were in CKD stage V.

Majority of the patients were from the western province (137, 68.5 %) with only five (2.5 %) from provinces with high prevalence of CKD-u.

The most common underlying causes of CKD were diabetes (88, 44%) and hypertension (34, 17 %).

However, in patients younger than 40 years of age the most common cause was glomerulonephritis (20, 42.6 %).

Diabetes was the most common cause of CKD among patients from the western province (74, 54 %).

The prevalence of CKD-u was twice as high in patients from areas outside the western province compared with patients from this province (P > 0.05).

The low prevalence of CKD-u in the study population could be the result of poor representation of patients from provinces with high prevalence of CKD-u.