Prevalence and Incidence of Moderate and Severe Chronic Renal Failure in South‐western Finland, 1973–76

Abstract

In an area of south-western Finland with 195,000 inhabitants and a highly centralized health care system, all subjects with elevated serum creatinine (.gtoreq. 230 .mu.mol/l) were registered on the basis of data collected from all hospitals and clinical laboratories of the region. The prevalence of chronic renal failure (S-creatinine .gtoreq. 230 .mu.mol/l) was 67 per 100 000 inhabitants and that of severe chronic renal failure (S-creatinine .gtoreq. 500 .mu.mol/l) 12.3/105. The annual incidence of chronic renal failure (S-creatinine .gtoreq. 230 .mu.mol/l) was 31.7 per 100 000 inhabitants and that of severe chronic renal failure (S-creatinine .gtoreq. 500 .mu.mol/l) 11.9/105. Age-specific prevalences and incidences rose progressively with age and were very high in the aged population. Chronic interstitial nephritis, in a broad sense, was the most common cause of chronic renal failure, and it was related to analgesic abuse in about half of the cases. Eleven of 68 subjects entering the study with a serum creatinine .gtoreq. 500 .mu.mol/l had no previous knowledge of their chronic renal disease.