Purpose:
1) To examine the prevalence of CKD risk factors,
2) To identify 10-year CKD risk based on the Thai CKD Risk Score, and
3) To compare number of known case CKD and CKD based on estimated GFR (eGFR) based on CKD-EPI formula.
Methods: Of those 378 monks who participated in a situational analysis of health status among Buddhist monks in Phichit province, Thailand, only data from 167 monks were included since the Thai CV Risk Score required at least 38 years of age. CKD risk factors such as age, gender, systolic blood pressure, history of diabetes, waist circumference, fasting plasma glucose, and serum creatinine were examined. The Thai CKD Risk Score were then calculated to estimate 10-year CKD risk. Number of known case CKD vs. CKD based on eGFR were also reviewed.
Results: One hundred and sixty seven monks participated in this study. Mean age was 54.55 (SD = 10.61). The most CKD risk factors were hypertension (50.30%), follow by diabetes (25.15%). More than 32 percent of monks had 10-year CKD risk at least or more than 10 percent, indicating high risk for CKD while 7.20 percent already had CKD. According to eGFR, 6.80 percent was at stage 3, which might present with symptoms and complications that may require treatment. However, only 3.6 percent was known case CKD.
Conclusion: These results imply that interventions targeting on health promotion and disease prevention among Buddhist monks, especially on how to prevent and care for CVD are needed. Additionally, it is very important to promote routine health checkup so that possible risk factors can be identified and managed. Once risk factors are controlled, we can reduce risk of having CKD among Buddhist monks.
Implications for Nursing: Urgent nursing intervention, such as health education, early screening, continuing of care etc, is needed for Buddhist monks. Health education is also important for Buddhist followers to prevent unhealthy food, i.e. high in fat, sodium, and sugar, offered as alms.