Effective monitoring of diabetic patients on progressive chronic kidney disease among patients attending diabetic clinic at Muhimbili National Hospital, Tanzania

Background: Diabetic Kidney Disease is a complication of Diabetes Mellitus (DM) following the natural history of diabetes. Worldwide up to 40 % of patients with diabetes mellitus will develop Diabetic Kidney Disease. Kidney Disease Outcome Quality Initiative (KDOQI) guidelines recommends monitoring for proteinuria, blood sugar, renal functions and blood pressure in the patients with DM so that progression to complications including renal failure is prevented. Our study aimed to audit on effective monitoring of progressive chronic kidney disease among patients attending diabetic clinic at Muhimbili National Hospital.

Material and methods: This was a retrospective clinical audit which included patients who attended diabetic clinic at Muhimbili National Hospital in 1st January 2017 to 31st December 2017. Simple random sampling technique using software called OpenEpi Random Program was used to get the sample of 120 patients. Patients with missing clinical notes were excluded from the audit. Records of the clinical notes, socio-demographic characteristics and investigations of the selected patients were retrieved from the Jeeva system and recorded using a structured questionnaire. We analyzed our data using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0

Results: One hundred and fourteen DM patents records were reviewed. Around 79% of the patients involved in the study were aged above 45years, 60% were females. Majority had type 2 DM (76.3%). Minority i.e. 15/114 (13.2%) of the patients had their urine for protein checked in the year 2017 as well as serum creatinine in the last 3months. Seven percent had HbA1c test done i.e. 8/114 (7%). Blood pressure was monitored in 72.8% (83/114) of the patients. Only16 out of 66 patients (24.2%) had blood pressure controlled.  Majority of the patients 10/15 (66.7%) who had renal functions records had normal eGFR. Findings on monitoring for proteinuria, renal functions, control of HbA1c and Blood pressure control were all below audit standards.

Conclusion: Our study found that there is generally poor monitoring of diabetic outpatient for progressive chronic kidney disease when compared to the KDOQI standards which calls the health care providers to adhere on set SOPs according to the guidelines available aiming at improving services and quality of life to diabetic patient.