MORE THAN 80 per cent of people in the west of Ireland who have chronic kidney disease are completely unaware of their condition, new research has found.
And even among those patients who have actually been diagnosed with the disease in the region, many receive suboptimal care from their GPs.
The findings come from a study of more than 2,600 patients over the age of 50 years carried out by the Department of General Practice at the National University of Ireland in Galway.
Jocelyn Anderson, a medical student who was involved in the study, said chronic kidney disease was a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease such as heart attack and stroke and therefore it was important for the condition to be diagnosed.
She pointed out that many patients with the disease would have no symptoms so GPs should check for it when patients visited their surgery.
She said there was little data on the prevalence of chronic kidney disease in the Republic and this was why the study was undertaken. It found a chronic kidney disease prevalence rate in the community of 16.7 per cent.
It also found 87 per cent of those with the disease in the west were undiagnosed. Of those who had been diagnosed, less than one-third of them were within the correct blood pressure range and 10 per cent were on drugs that were contraindicated for their condition.
Asked why so many were being undiagnosed, Ms Anderson said it was probably due to a lack of awareness of how important it was as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease.
Once chronic kidney disease was diagnosed, it could be managed, she said.
Asked if she felt the findings would apply to patients across the country, she said: “We like to think our data can be generalisable.”
Ms Anderson presented the findings at the 12th annual scientific meeting of the Association of University Departments of General Practice in Ireland.