Association of indoor use of pesticides with CKD of unknown origin

INTRODUCTION: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a growing global health problem. Recently, an epidemic of CKD of unknown origin (CKDu), a form of CKD seen mostly in agricultural communities, has been emerged. One of the proposed causes of CKDu is pesticide use in farmers. On the other hand, the research on relation between indoor use of pesticides and CKDu is little. In this study, we aimed to investigate the association between indoor use of pesticide as well as the exposure time with CKDu. This study was done as part of the population-based cohort of Prospective Epidemiological Research Studies in Iran. We used the baseline data of the Zahedan Adult Cohort Study. All subjects with diabetes mellitus and/or hypertension, estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) between 60–89 ml/min/1.73 m(2), and unavailable creatinine measurement were excluded. Subjects with an eGFR of less than 60 ml/min/1.73 m(2) were defined as having CKDu, and their data were compared with those with an eGFR of more than 90 ml/min/1.73 m(2). Data regarding indoor pesticide use and duration of exposure were obtained through a questionnaire. After applying the exclusion criteria, 1079 subjects remained in the study. Female sex, single marital status, low physical activity, triglyceride (TG) levels of more than 150 mg/dl, body mass index (BMI) of more than 25 kg/m(2), non-smokers, indoor pesticide use, and high pesticide exposure time were associated with CKDu. The effects of age, female sex, TG levels more than 150 mg/dl, pesticide use (OR 1.36; 95% CI 1.01–1.84), and high exposure time (third tertile of exposure time) compared to non-users (OR 1.64; 95% CI 1.07–2.51) remained significant in multivariable analysis. CONCLUSION: We found a positive association between pesticide use, as well as longer exposure time to pesticides, and impaired kidney function in cases without diabetes mellitus and hypertension. Further longitudinal studies should be carried out to confirm these findings.