Study: 8.7% of people in Tamil Nadu have chronic kidney disease

CHENNAI: The prevalence of chronic kidney disease (stage 3 or more) is 8.7% in Tamil Nadu with no difference in gender, says a study by the Institute of Community Medicine, Madras Medical College, released on Thursday. The disease, predominantly seen in rural areas, is mostly silent as only 6.8% of patients with chronic kidney disease had symptoms, the study showed.
"The disease is significantly higher among the rural population. Nearly 60% of the study population was from a rural area," health minister Ma Subramanian said after releasing the study on International Kidney Day. "We plan to expand this study to see the prevalence among specific groups starting with agricultural labour," he said.
The disease is divided into five stages. In the first stage, where the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) a measure of how well your kidneys are working is above 90. The kidneys have mild damage but work well. In the second stage, when the eGFR is between 60 and 89, the kidneys have moderate damage and don't work as well as they should. From the third stage, the damage is severe and the condition worsens in stage four. The organ stops working in stage 5, when the eGFR is below 15. In the state study, 0.3% were in stage 5, 1.2% were in stage 4, 2.3% were in stage 3B and 4.6% were in stage 3A. While 52% had mild damage to the kidney, 39.4% had moderate damage. The TN study was conceived by the Institute of nephrology and funded by the National Health Mission. More than 500 health staff collected data from 4,682 people, 1,926 of them men.