Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a worldwide major public health problem that is associated with an increased incidence of kidney failure and cardiovascular disease (CVD). To tackle this burden, screening for CKD among the general population could be beneficial to allow early detection and treatment. In the last decades, elevated albuminuria has increasingly been recognized as an early marker of generalized vascular endothelial damage, that predicts CKD and CVD progression.
It has been estimated that approximately 6% of the general population has elevated albuminuria, and that the majority of these subjects are not known yet with this abnormality. Among these subjects, many have hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes and/or impaired kidney function, that often is also not known yet. Early detection of elevated albuminuria may be important because it gives the opportunity to invite subjects that test positive for further screening for CKD and CVD risk factors. Thus these risk factors for CKD and CVD progression could be treated in an early stage.
Population screening for albuminuria could be justified according to the WHO criteria of Wilson and Jungner , because CKD has important consequences for subjects, the course of the disease is initially symptomless, and there are treatment methods available. However, implementation research to validate screening the general population for albuminuria and related health consequences is lacking, as are cost-effectiveness studies.
In the current study the aim is to develop a home-based screening technique for detecting elevated albuminuria. Two screening methods will be investigated, and yield and cost-effectiveness of these screening methods will be evaluated
