Background: The silent progression of chronic kidney diseases (CKD) and its association with other chronic diseases, and high treatment costs make it a great public health concern worldwide. The population burden of CKD in Peru has yet to be fully described.

Methods: We completed a cross sectional study of CKD prevalence among 404 participants (total study population median age 54.8 years, 50.2 % male) from two sites, highly-urbanized Lima and less urbanized Tumbes, who were enrolled in the population-based CRONICAS Cohort Study of cardiopulmonary health in Peru. Factors potentially associated with the presence of CKD were explored using Poisson regression, a statistical methodology used to determine prevalence ratios.

Results: In total, 68 participants (16.8 %, 95 % CI 13.5–20.9 %) met criteria for CKD: 60 (14.9%) with proteinuria, four (1%) with eGFR <60mL/min/1.73m2 , and four (1%) with both. CKD prevalence was higher in Lima (20.7 %, 95 % CI 15.8–27.1) than Tumbes (12.9 %, 95 % CI 9.0–18.5). Among participants with CKD, the prevalence of diabetes and hypertension was 19.1 % and 42.7 %, respectively. After multivariable adjustment, CKD was associated with older age, female sex, greater wealth tertile (although all wealth strata were below the poverty line), residence in Lima, and presence of diabetes and hypertension.

Conclusions: The high prevalence rates of CKD identified in Lima and Tumbes are similar to estimates from high-income settings. These findings highlight the need to identify occult CKD and implement strategies to prevent disease progression and secondary morbidity.