Background

The prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in rural Vietnam is unknown. We wished to determine the prevalence of CKD and determine whether a simple questionnaire was able to detect individuals at high risk of CKD before expensive confirmatory laboratory testing.

Methods

A cross sectional study was performed. We recruited 2037 participants from 13 communes of Long An province, Vietnam, for CKD screening with urine albumin/creatinine ratio (ACR) measured by immunoturbidimetric method and serum creatinine to estimate glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). CKD was defined as either ACR ≥ 30 mg/g or eGFR MDRD < 60 ml/min/1.73 m2. A two page questionnaire with 23 variables was administered to each participant with queries postulated to be correlated with risk of CKD.

Results

Of the 2037 participants, 260 (12.76%) were found to have CKD. Five questionnaire variables (age more than 50, measured hypertension, history of diabetes, history of hypertension, and history of a low salt diet) were correlated with CKD, and used to construct a risk score for CKD.

Conclusions

CKD is common in Vietnam. Our questionnaire and risk score tool can be used to detect individuals with a higher likelihood of CKD, and who can then be more economically screened with routine laboratory confirmatory tests.