Name: Dr Gavin Dreyer
Hospital / Affiliation: Royal Free Hospital London, UK and Malawi College of Medicine, Blantyre Malawi
Home Country: UK
Host Country: Malawi
Year: 2013
Status of your program: COMPLETED
Title of the program:
A population based screening and prevention programme for CKD and associated non-communicable diseases in Blantyre, Malawi
Topic:
Chronic Kidney Disease
Short description of the project or abstract:
The Global Burden of Disease initiative reports that in 2000 there were approximately 55,000 cases of diabetes mellitus in Malawi predicted to rise to 118,000 by 2030. Additionally, Malawi is thought to have an almost three-fold higher cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality rate than both the United Kingdom and the United States.
However, there is a paucity of data about the prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in Malawi at a time when NCDs known to cause CKD are increasing. This is critically relevant because the Malawian government is currently expanding haemodialysis services nationwide to meet the growing but as yet unquantified burden of end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Currently, no services to screen for the early stages of kidney disease exist in Malawi. The yearly, per patient cost of haemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis in Malawi are $26,000 and $65,000 respectively but these figures exclude staff costs and additional consumable supplies beyond those essential for the technical process of blood purification.
The huge economic cost of dialysis in Malawi means that very few people can benefit from it and the lack of transplantation means that dialysis is a little more than palliative care in this setting. Crucial to the economic viability and sustainability of therapies for ESRD in a resource limited setting such as Malawi, is a comprehensive and accurate understanding of the earlier stages of kidney disease and its causative factors where low cost, high impact interventions offer a more economically viable, long term solution to kidney disease than renal replacement therapies. This study is designed to evaluate the prevalence and possible risk factors for CKD in a community dwelling adult population in Malawi.
Learning or Research objectives:
- To measure the prevalence and distribution of CKD and associated NCDs and their risk factors within the study population
- To provide aetiological insights into the variation in cardio-metabolic risk factors in adults
- To improve government awareness, inform health policy and strategic planning for public health programmes aimed at addressing the rise in NCDs in Malawi, which may also shape public health strategies in other African countries
- To create a unique framework for building a large scale prospective cohort study in an African population to examine a wide range of health indices – and lay the groundwork for additional long-term studies
Additional Info
-
Year:
2013 -
Status:
Completed -
Region:
Africa -
Country:
Malawi -
Topics:
CKD