The Causes of Chronic Kidney Disease in Adults in a Developing Country

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus (DM) and hypertension (HTN) are considered as the leading causes of CKD all around the world. But the causes of CKD differ from region to region. In developing countries the population is heterogeneous therefore regional causes of CKD need to be evaluated.

Material and method: This cross sectional study included all adult CKD patients, who visited to nephrology service in two tertiary care hospitals in metropolitan city Karachi in Pakistan. The sociodemographic data was collected by interview through a structured questionnaire while laboratory data was collected from patients records.

Results: Diabetic nephropathy (DNP) was the main cause of CKD (37.5%) followed by hypertensive nephropathy (17.1%) and obstructive nephropathy (ONP) (12.7%). ONP and hereditary disorders (HD) were more prevalent in males than females (70. 1% vs. 29.9%) and (75% vs. 25%) respectively, while urinary tract infection (UTI), drug induced kidney disease and tubulointerstitial nephritis (TIN) were more common in females than in males (87.5% vs. 12.5%), (75.8% vs.24.2%) and (64.7% vs. 35.3%) respectively. Gender, area of residence and socioeconomic status were the factors which affect the cause of CKD (p ≤ 0.05).

Conclusion: DNP and hypertensive nephropathy were more prevalent in urban, educated males with high socioeconomic background. On the other hand CKD of unknown etiology and stone diseases were more common in rural, uneducated, males with low socioeconomic background.