Proteinuria among school children aged 8-16 years in rural area of Karnataka

Abstract

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) in children is a devastating illness, and the mortality rate of the children is high and majority of them present at the later stages of disease. Early diagnosis of renal diseases with effective preventive and interventional strategies will help in reducing the burden of the disease. Urine protein estimation is one of the simplest, least expensive method to detect urinary abnormalities which may suggest the presence of renal disease. Presence of proteins in urine is termed proteinuria and its presence for more than 3 occasions is termed persistent proteinuria(PP). The present study is a cross-sectional one and was planned to determine prevalence of persistent proteinuria in 500 healthy school children aged between 8-16 years. Out of 500 students, proteinuria was positive in 4.4% of the students in the first visit and persistent in 2.4%. Proteinuria was positive and persistent in 1.8% of girls and 0.6% of boys. Proteinuria is an early marker of kidney disease. It is important to identify these cases to detect renal disease if any so that remedial steps can be taken to prevent the associated morbidity. Children with persistent proteinuria should be subjected to follow-up and further workup to identify the cause.