Chronic kidney disease monitoring in Australian general practice.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Kidney Health Australia recommends regular monitoring of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) to reduce progression and prevent complications such as cardiovascular disease. The objective of this study was to examine how practice aligns with the recommendations in Kidney Health Australia's CKD guidelines. METHOD: Australian general practice data from the NPS MedicineWise MedicineInsight program (1 January 2013 - 1 June 2016) for 19,712 adults with laboratory evidence of stage 3 CKD were analysed. Complete monitoring in these individuals was defined as having at least one recorded assessment of blood pressure, urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio, estimated glomerular filtration rate and serum lipids over an 18-month period. RESULTS: Complete monitoring was performed for 25% of the cohort; 54.9% among patients with concomitant diabetes and 14.1% among patients without diabetes. Patients with diabetes, hypertension and a documented diagnosis of CKD were more likely to have complete monitoring. DISCUSSION: There is room for improvement in monitoring of patients with stage 3 CKD, particularly for albuminuria, which was monitored in fewer than 50% of these patients.

Undiagnosed and uncontrolled hypertension among the adults in rural Bangladesh: findings from a community-based study.

OBJECTIVES: This article reports the prevalence and prediction factors of undiagnosed and uncontrolled hypertension among the adults in rural Bangladesh. METHODS: A cross-sectional study of the major noncommunicable disease risk factors was conducted in rural surveillance sites of Bangladesh in 2005. In addition to the self-report questions on risk factors, height, weight, and blood pressure were measured using standard protocols of the WHO STEPwise approach to Surveillance. Undiagnosed hypertension was defined when people reported no hypertension but were found hypertensive when measured, and uncontrolled hypertension was defined when people reported receiving antihypertensive treatment but their blood pressure was above the normal range when measured. RESULTS: The prevalence of undiagnosed hypertension was 11.1%, increasing with age to 22.7% among those aged 60 years and above. Among the hypertensive patients receiving treatment, 54.9% were found to be uncontrolled (34.5% among 25-39 years and 67.9% among 60+ years). Increasing age and higher BMI were significantly positively associated with undiagnosed hypertension in multivariate analysis. Increasing age and more wealth have significant independent association with uncontrolled hypertension. CONCLUSION: High prevalence of undiagnosed hypertension, and more than 50% of the treated hypertension being uncontrolled puts a great challenge ahead for Bangladesh, a resource-poor setting. Regular health check or health screening along with implementation of hypertensive guidelines should be reinforced.

Diagnosis of chronic conditions with modifiable lifestyle risk factors in selected urban and rural areas of Bangladesh and sociodemographic variability therein.

BACKGROUND: Bangladesh suffers from a lack of healthcare providers. The growing chronic disease epidemic's demand for healthcare resources will further strain Bangladesh's limited healthcare workforce. Little is known about how Bangladeshis with chronic disease seek care. This study describes chronic disease patients' care seeking behavior by analyzing which providers diagnose these diseases. METHODS: During 2 month periods in 2009, a cross-sectional survey collected descriptive data on chronic disease diagnoses among 3 surveillance populations within the International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR, B) network. The maximum number of respondents (over age 25) who reported having ever been diagnosed with a chronic disease determined the sample size. Using SAS software (version 8.0) multivariate regression analyses were preformed on related sociodemographic factors. RESULTS: Of the 32,665 survey respondents, 8,591 self reported having a chronic disease. Chronically ill respondents were 63.4% rural residents. Hypertension was the most prevalent disease in rural (12.4%) and urban (16.1%) areas. In rural areas chronic disease diagnoses were made by MBBS doctors (59.7%) and Informal Allopathic Providers (IAPs) (34.9%). In urban areas chronic disease diagnoses were made by MBBS doctors (88.0%) and IAP (7.9%). Our analysis identified several groups that depended heavily on IAP for coverage, particularly rural, poor and women. CONCLUSION: IAPs play important roles in chronic disease care, particularly in rural areas. Input and cooperation from IAPs are needed to minimize rural health disparities. More research on IAP knowledge and practices regarding chronic disease is needed to properly utilize this potential healthcare resource.