CHENNAI: A study by the Madras Medical College has found that the number of chronic kidney diseases (CKD) are significantly high in rural population at 60%. The report was released by the Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian on Thursday at the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Egmore on the occasion of World Kidney Day.
Hypertension accounts to 22.4% of CKD cases, while diabetes accounts for 9.6% of the cases and the cause of CKD in 53.4% people is not known, the study which was conceived by the Institute of Nephrology and conducted by the Institute of Community Medicine of Madras Medical College showed.
As part of the study 4,682 people across Tamil Nadu were screened, of which 58.9% were women and 4.1% were men.
The Directorate of Public Health (DPH) had deployed 500 field staff from all over the state to conduct the study, which was inaugurated by Subramanian on World Kidney Day in 2022. The samples collected were analysed by a regional public health laboratory under the DPH and the study was funded by the National Health Mission.
According to the doctors, this is the first-of-its-kind study to study the prevalence of CKD in any Indian state. The study concluded that the prevalence of CKD stage 3 and above in Tamil Nadu is 8.7% with no difference in gender. Only 6.8% of patients with CKD had symptoms or signs of kidney disease. More than half of the CKD comprised patients between the ages of 30-60 years.
The minister said that since the findings has shown that CKD is more in rural population, the health department is planning to conduct another study focusing on workers from unorganised sector, especially agricultural workers soon. The funds for the study will be sought from the Tamil Nadu Health System Reform Programme.