Proteinuria among asymptomatic primary school children in Sokoto town

Abstract

Background: Serious renal diseases may be present without any obvious symptom. Current Kidney Disease Outcome Quality Initiative (KDOQI) guidelines recommend screening for kidney diseases with serum creatinine measurement for use in  glomerular filtration rate (GFR) estimation and analysis of a random urine sample for proteinuria. However, Proteinuria often alerts the physician to the presence of kidney disease before changes in GFR become apparent.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of proteinuria among asymptomatic primary school children in Sokoto town.

Methods: This was a prospective cross sectional study involving asymptomatic primary school children aged between 5 and 14 years in Sokoto metropolis. They were recruited from 31 randomly selected public and private primary schools in Sokoto metropolis. Early morning urine samples were obtained from the children and subjected to urinalysis using 10 SG Multistix. Same process was repeated after two weeks on pupils whose initial screening showed positive results.

Results: There were 308 (51.3%) males and 292(48.7%) females with a male to female ratio of 1.1:1. Following the first urinary screening, 68 of the 600 pupils had asymptomatic proteinuria of varying degrees giving a prevalence of asymptomatic proteinuria of 11.3%. On second urinary screening (2 weeks later), 30 (44.1%) of the 68 pupils that initially tested positive for proteinuria still had proteinuria of varying degrees, giving a prevalence of persistent asymptomatic proteinuria of 5.0%. The urine of one (3.8%) of the pupils with persistent proteinuria grew Escherichia coli while three (11.5%) pupils had ova of Schistosoma haematobium. The results of the urine m/c/s of the remaining 26 subjects were normal.

Conclusion: Asymptomatic proteinuria is a common urinary abnormality among primary school children in the study area.

Keywords: Prevalence, Proteinuria,  Asymptomatic primary school pupils.