Microalbuminuria in normotensive nondiabetic overweight and obese versus nonobese adults.

Abstract

Introduction: Obesity has reached an epidemic stage worldwide. As the prevalence of obesity increases, the burden of its associated comorbidities increases. It has been linked to altered hemodynamics leading to glomerulopathy that results in microalbuminuria, proteinuria, and chronic kidney disease. Recent population-based surveys have shown that overweight and obesity are the risk factors for the development and progression of nephropathy in normotensive and nondiabetic adults as well. The underlying causes may involve adipogenic inflammation and endothelial dysfunction that results in microalbuminuria. The population of the Asia Pacific region appears to be at higher risk of obesity-related morbidities at lower BMI. An established indicator of early renal impairment in diabetes and hypertension is microalbuminuria (MAU). Our study aims to screen obese and overweight adults and compare them with nonobese adults to estimate the prevalence of microalbuminuria in both groups when risk factors such as diabetes and hypertension are excluded.

Material and methods: This study was a comparative cross-sectional study carried out in a tertiary care hospital from January 2021 to May 2022. An appropriate statistical method was applied to calculate the sample size. A total of 75 obese individuals were taken as cases and 75 age- and sex-matched nonobese adults as controls were taken for the study.

Results and conclusion: The prevalence of microalbuminuria was found to be 24% in cases compared to 5.33% in controls, which was statistically significant, with a P-value of 0.002.The distribution of microalbuminuria was comparable between overweight and obese (20% vs 28.57% respectively) (P-value = 0.386).Overweight and obese adults were 5 times more likely to develop microalbuminuria compared to nonobese adults.This study highlights the urgent need to reverse the epidemic of obesity among young adults in India considering its role as a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases and progression of renal disease.