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Home urinalysis testing preferable to office visit
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A high percentage of patients tested for chronic kidney disease preferred using a new at-home test, were happy with the process and preferred it to getting tested in their doctor’s office.
The National Kidney Foundation, Geisinger and Healthy.io evaluated the efficacy of smartphone home testing for CKD in 1,000 patients. According to the NKF press release, less than 10% of patients with clinical hypertension and less than 40% of patients with diabetes are assessed despite guidelines recommending yearly CKD testing.
“Albuminuria is often the earliest sign of kidney disease and yet, in the majority of people at increased risk due to diabetes or hypertension, it is not tested,” Kerry Willis, PhD, NKF chief scientific officer, said in the release. “This new test has the potential to help millions of patients find out they have CKD while there is still time to prevent progression to kidney failure.”
The investigators hypothesized that the use of the mailed, smartphone kits could offer additional modality, improve compliance with albuminuria screening and may be preferable for some patients. According to the release, researchers examined the effect of mailed Healthy.io smartphone urinalysis kits in improving the detection of albuminuria.
Overall, the intervention increased proteinuria screening completion by 28.9% vs. 18%. Additionally, there was no difference in the proportion of the detected albuminuria cases between the intervention and being tested in a doctor’s office, according to the release. Researchers noted that patients who completed home testing, the mean score for whether they would recommend home urine testing to a friend or colleague was 8.9/10.
“The home testing was very well-received and easy to do for patients,” Alex R. Chang, MD, MS, of Geisinger Health, said in a press release. “Important limitations of this study were that we required patients to consent by telephone before sending testing kits. Also, few patients who had abnormal urinalysis findings went to the clinic lab for their confirmation testing in the 3-month follow-up period. Future research should evaluate optimal screening and confirmation testing strategies-all completed at the comfort of home.”
Reference:
www.kidney.org/news/new-home-test-kidney-damage-shows-promising-results