Health sciences students knowledge, attitude and practices with chronic kidney disease in Jimma University, Ethiopia: cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to assess knowledge, attitude and practices of undergraduate health sciences students toward chronic kidney disease at Jimma University. RESULTS: The overall weighted knowledge, attitude and practices score of the students were 8.6042 (8.26, 8.95), 6.23 (5.93, 6.53) and 2.51 (2.35, 2.67). Many students knew the basic function, symptoms and risk factors of chronic kidney disease. However, the same number of students showed a lack of diagnosis knowledge. Generally, students showed a favorable attitude and practice toward chronic kidney disease. However, they had a poor habit of a hospital visit for routine kidney checkup because of the socio-economic factors. The current study concludes that, despite students showed a good level of knowledge, attitude, and practices toward chronic kidney disease poor knowledge of kidney diagnosis methods and poor practice of visit to biomedical clinics for regular kidney checkup observed. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s13104-019-4426-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.