Proteinuria and its associated factors in patients attending family medicine clinics in Dammam, Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND: Urinalysis is a simple, valuable, and low-cost tool for the detection of proteinuria, a significant risk factor for renal and cardiovascular diseases. The purpose of this study was to determine the rate of proteinuria and its associated risk factors in patients attending Family Medicine Clinics in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, as no study of that nature had previously been conducted. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this register-based cross-sectional study, data including urinary protein and other urinalysis components ordered between January 2018 and January 2020 were collected from electronic medical records. In addition, data regarding nationality, gender, age, blood pressure, body mass index, serum human chorionic gonadotropin, fasting glucose, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), 25-hydroxy Vitamin D level, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), uric acid, creatinine, estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), and lipid profile was also obtained. Proteinuria was classified as negative if no or trace protein was present, and positive if protein was ≥1+, and was considered overt proteinuria. RESULTS: In total, results of 2942 urinalysis tests were included. The mean age of the patients was 42.4 ± 14.5 years; majority of the patients were females (62.3%) and were Saudis (68.8%). The rate of proteinuria was 4.2%. Saudi nationality, female gender, age ≥ 40 years, high systolic blood pressure, high diastolic blood pressure, fasting glucose ≥126, HbA1c ≥6.5%, BUN >20 mg/dl, creatinine >1.3 mg/dl, low eGFR <60, and high low-density lipoproteins cholesterol were significantly associated with proteinuria based on bivariate analysis. Using a logistic regression model, a statistically significant association was observed between proteinuria and advancing age, the presence of urinary casts, elevated serum creatinine level, and Saudi nationality. CONCLUSION: The only variables that were independently associated with proteinuria using the logistic regression were the presence of casts in the urine, Saudi nationality, high creatinine level, and older age. These variables should be borne in mind by treating physicians.