Prevalence of Proteinuria in School-Aged Turkish Children, and Its Association with Obesity and Hypertension

Abstract

Aim: In kidney diseases, renal damage may be mild and initially asymptomatic. Proteinuria, a marker of kidney injury, directly contributes to chronic tubulointerstitial damage. We investigated the prevalence of proteinuria (POP) in school-aged children in Turkey. Materials and Methods: The cluster sampling method was used to calculate the required size of the study group for this cross-sectional study. Urine samples were randomly obtained to determine urinary protein/creatinine ratio (Upr/Ucr) from 1374 children aged 6 to 18 years. POP was also specifically assessed in hypertensive and obese children. Results: The mean age of the subjects was 11.68±3.43 years. The children were from rural (23.9%) and urban (76.1%) regions of Tokat, Turkey. Upr/Ucr ≥0.20 was detected in 92 children, corresponding to a POP rate of 6.7%, without any statistically significant difference between girls and boys. Among 141 obese children, 16 (11.3%) and 76 of 1233 non-obese children (6.2%) had proteinuria (p0.05). Conclusion: Among school-aged Turkish children POP was 6.7%. POP was higher in obese than in non-obese children. But there was no association between POP and hypertension. While screening programs allow the early detection of renal disease, further cohort studies are required to be able to suggest urinary screening programs.

Keywords

• Proteinuria
• children
• obesity
• protein creatinine ratio
• hypertension