Comparing prevalence of chronic kidney disease and its risk factors between population-based surveys in Russia and Norway

• Published in: BMC Nephrology
• Main Authors: Cook, Sarah, Solbu, Marit Dahl, Eggen, Anne Elise, Iakunchykova, Olena, Averina, Maria, Hopstock, Laila Arnesdatter, Kholmatova, Kamila Kahramonzhonovna, Kudryavtsev, Alexander V, Leon, David A., Malyutina, Sofia, Ryabikov, Andrew, Williamson, Elizabeth, Nitsch, Dorothea
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2022
• Subjects: Norway; Tromsø; Arkhangelsk
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10037/26429; https://doi.org/10.1186/s12882-022-02738-2

Background - Little data exists on the prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in the Russian population. We aimed to estimate the prevalence of CKD in a population-based study in Russia, compare with a similar study in Norway, and investigate whether differences in risk factors explained between-study differences in CKD. Methods - We compared age- and sex-standardised prevalence of reduced eGFR (< 60 ml/min/1.73m2 CKD-EPI creatinine equation), albuminuria and or a composite indicator of CKD (one measure of either reduced eGFR or albuminuria) between participants aged 40–69 in the population-based Know Your Heart (KYH) study, Russia (2015–2018 N = 4607) and the seventh Tromsø Study (Tromsø7), Norway (2015–2016 N = 17,646). We assessed the contribution of established CKD risk factors (low education, diabetes, hypertension, antihypertensive use, smoking, obesity) to between-study differences using logistic regression. Results - Prevalence of reduced eGFR or albuminuria was 6.5% (95% Confidence Interval (CI) 5.4, 7.7) in KYH and 4.6% (95% CI 4.0, 5.2) in Tromsø7 standardised for sex and age. Odds of both clinical outcomes were higher in KYH than Tromsø7 (reduced eGFR OR 2.06 95% CI 1.67, 2.54; albuminuria OR 1.54 95% CI 1.16, 2.03) adjusted for sex and age. Risk factor adjustment explained the observed between-study difference in albuminuria (OR 0.92 95% CI 0.68, 1.25) but only partially reduced eGFR (OR 1.42 95% CI 1.11, 1.82). The strongest explanatory factors for the between-study difference was higher use of antihypertensives (Russian sample) for reduced eGFR and mean diastolic blood pressure for albuminuria. Conclusions - We found evidence of a higher burden of CKD within the sample from the population in Arkhangelsk and Novosibirsk compared to Tromsø, partly explained by between-study population differences in established risk factors. In particular hypertension defined by medication use was an important factor associated with the higher CKD prevalence in the Russian sample.