Detection of Urine abnormalities among school children

Urinary abnormalities in children may go unnoticed and can result in severe kidney diseases. Thus, their early detection is an important strategy in the prevention and control of CKD. In this study, school children are screened for “urine abnormalities” like presence of protein, blood, glucose, ketones, nitrite, leukocytes, bilirubin, urobilinogen and abnormalities in pH and specific gravity using the urine dip strips.

The objectives of the study were to detect urine abnormalities among school children (10-14 years) and to find association between the detected abnormalities with selected baseline variables of children.

The study was done on 235 children using purposive sampling technique. Data on demographic variables, physical examination and urine dip-strip test results were collected from four schools over a period of one month. Data analysis was done using frequency and percentage, Chi-square and Fishers Exact test.

The study results revealed that 90.2% (212) of the students had urine abnormalities and the major urine abnormality detected was increased urine specific gravity in 89.36% (210), and all other abnormalities were in less than 3.4% (8) of the samples, namely Bilirubinuria in 3.4% (8), leukocyturia in 1.7% (4), alkaline pH in 1.27% (3) and proteinuria in 0.4% (1) and that there is a significant association between presence of urinary abnormalities with age (p= 0.001) and place of residence (p= 0.001) at 0.05 level of significance.

Significant urine abnormalities though found in a small number of children, their early detection is crucial to prevent Chronic Kidney Disease.