Prevalence of persistent proteinuria in overweight and obese primary school children in Calabar, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: There is a dearth of information on the relationship between persistent proteinuria with overweight and obesity in Nigerian children. Therefore, this study is aimed at evaluating this relationship.

Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study of 275 overweight and obese primary school children aged 5 to 12 years derived from an initial screening of the Body Mass Index of 1,600 apparently healthy primary school pupils recruited by multi-stage sampling. Subjects early morning urine was collected and urinalysis done. Those with proteinuria ≥ 1+, had urinalysis repeated after two weeks and those with persistent proteinuria, were quantitated using the modified Biuret and urine creatinine with the modified Jaffe Kinetic methods. Urine protein:creatinine ratios > 0.20 were confirmed as persistent proteinuria. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 22.0 and P-value ≤ 0.05 was significant.

Results: Overweight were 192 (69.8%) and obese 83 (30.2%). Five Children (1.8%) had persistent proteinuria consisting of four (1.4%) of overweight and one (0.4%) of Obese though not statistically significant.

Conclusion: Prevalence of persistent proteinuria among overweight and obese primary school children was 1.4% and 0.4% respectively. More studies are needed to evaluate the impact of overweight and obesity on the kidneys of Nigerian children.

Keywords: Persistent Proteinuria, Overweight, Obesity, Children