A review of the epidemiology of chronic kidney disease in Pakistan: A global and regional perspective

Abstract

Both the incidence and prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) are rising with immense pace worldwide. People living in developing countries are speculated to suffer the consequences due to economic deprivation and high cost of treatment. The prevalence of CKD is highly variable in different parts of the world, due to various environmental, ethnic, socioeconomical, and rural-urban differences. It has become very important for the developing countries to understand the true nature of the disease and its prevalence, rather than to hypothesize or make supposition on the bases of Western data. It is imperative to understand the risk factors in our region or country. Few studies have reported that the prevalence of CKD in Pakistan and its risk factors. Through the internet, we searched the terms prevalence of CKD, and included articles that discussed the CKD prevalence in different regions. We reviewed all studies along with the global as well as regional data to have better insight into the problem.