RE: epidemiology of chronic kidney disease of undetermined aetiology in Taiwanese farmers

Chang and Yang investigated the possible risk factors of chronic kidney disease of undetermined aetiology (CKDu) in Taiwanese farmers with special reference to heat stress.1 The age-adjusted and sex-adjusted prevalence OR (95% CI) of farmers versus non-farmers for CKDu was 1.45 (1.10 to 1.90), and prevalence of dehydration in farmers was higher than that in non-farmers. They made an emphasis on thermal hazards for CKDu in farmers, and I present my queries about the study. First, there is no difference in serum creatinine in farmers and non-farmers,2 and procedures for estimating glomerular filtration rate may not affect the status of CKDu. Although the characteristics of job in non-farmers should be specified, methodological problem can be excluded to estimate the risk of CKDu in farmers. Second, some reports have been published on the association between pesticide and kidney damage in farmers. Lebov et al evaluated the association...
Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine - Category: Occupational Health Authors: Tags: PostScript Source Type: research