Unawareness for chronic kidney disease is high in all stages, age groups and comorbidities and higher in women than in men

BackgroundChronic kidney disease (CKD) is associated with an increased risk for cardiovascular events, hospitalizations or mortality. In populations aged [≥]40 years, CKD is as prevalent as diabetes or coronary heart disease. Awareness for CKD though is generally low in public, patients and physicians, which hinders early diagnosis and treatment to decelerate disease progress. MethodWe analyzed baseline data collected in 2010 from 3,334 participants with CKD stages 1-5 from German CKD cohorts and registries. CKD unawareness and 95%-confidence intervals (CI) was estimated according to patients answer to the question whether they had ever been told to suffer from a CKD. Prevalence ratios (PR) with 95%-CI were estimated in categories of age, sex, CKD stages, BMI, hypertension, diabetes and other relevant comorbidities. ResultsCKD unawareness was high, reaching 82% (95% CI: 80%-84%) for CKD stages 1 or 2, 71% (68%-73%) in CKD 3a, 49% (45%-54%) in CKD 3b and still 30% (24%-36%) in CKD4, in each stage increasing with age. CKD unawareness was similarly high in patients with hypertension, diabetes or cardiovascular comorbidities. Women were more often unaware than men (PR=1.07 (1.02;1.12)), this sex difference increased with increasing CKD stage. Macroalbuminuria (PR=0.90 (0.82; 1.00)), anemia (PR=0.78 (0.73; 0.83)) and BMI [≥]40 (PR=0.88 (0.77; 1.00)) were associated with higher CKD awareness. ConclusionEven in older patients or in patients with comorbidities, CKD unawareness was high. Sex differences were largest in later stages. Guideline oriented treatment of patients with hypertension or diabetes could increase awareness. Patient-physician communication about CKD might be amendable.