Background. Chronic kidney disease is a global health problem with serious adverse effects, including kidney failure, cardiovascular disease, and premature death. Improving awareness and practice on the impact, prevention, and early detection of chronic kidney disease will reduce the significant economic and public health burden. Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine knowledge and practice towards prevention and early detection of chronic kidney disease and its associated factors among hypertensive patients in Gondar town in 2019. The study included hypertensive patients visiting health institutions from February to March 2019. Data was collected using a semistructured questionnaire and individuals who fulfilled our inclusion criteria were selected using a systemic random sampling technique. Epi Info software version 7 was used for data entry, and SPSS version 20 was used for descriptive and logistic regression analysis. Result. Out of a total of 442 participants, 434 completed the questionnaire, with a response rate of 98.1%. Of the total, 298 (68.7%) had good knowledge of chronic kidney disease with a mean knowledge score of 8.78 ± 2.80 and 210 (48.4%) had good practice with mean practice score of 6.58 ± 1.61. Educational status, residence, and duration of hypertension were significantly associated with the knowledge and practice scores of the participants in the multivariate logistic regression analysis. Conclusion. More than half of the participants had good knowledge about chronic kidney disease and its risk factors. However, the level of preventive practice among participants was low. The educational status, residence, and duration of hypertension were significantly associated variables with knowledge and practice scores in multivariate logistic regression.

Introduction: Electrolyte imbalance refers to altered electrolyte levels that predominantly affect diabetic patients due to hyperglycemia which rise plasma osmolality and impaired renal function, contributing to a change in electrolyte level. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the prevalence of electrolyte imbalance and its associated factors among diabetic patients and healthy control groups attending the University of Gondar Comprehensive Specialized Hospital. Patients and Methods: A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted on 130 diabetic patients and 130 diabetes-free controls. Sociodemographic, behavioral and clinical data were collected using a structured questionnaire. After measuring anthropometric parameters, 5mL of the blood sample was collected. Electrolytes were measured based on ion-selective electrode methods. Fasting blood glucose, and creatinine were measured by spectrophotometric enzyme hexokinase, and Jaffe reaction methods, respectively. The data was entered into Epi-data version 4.6 and analyzed using STATA version 14. Mann-Whitney U-tests and independent t-tests were used for comparison. Multiple logistic regression analysis was done to determine the factors associated with electrolyte imbalances. P-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Result: The overall prevalence of electrolyte imbalance among diabetic patients and controls were 83.07% and 52.31%, respectively. The mean of Na + and the median level of Mg 2+ and Ca 2+ were significantly decreased. However, the mean level of Cl − was significantly increased in diabetic patients as compared to control groups. In multivariable logistic regression: alcohol consumption AOR = 3.34 [1.02-10.9], no formal education ], hyperglycemia AOR = 6.32 [2.04-19.5], and urbanization ] showed significant association with electrolyte imbalance. Conclusion: Diabetic patients have more likely to develop electrolyte imbalance than control groups. Diabetic participants showed significantly reduced Na + , Mg 2+ , and Ca 2+ levels and significantly increasing CI − levels when compared to control groups. Hyperglycemia, alcohol drinking habits, urbanization, and no-formal education were statistically significantly associated with electrolyte imbalance.