Urinary screening and nutritional health assessment in a community of indigenous school children from Totoró (Colombia)

A higher risk for kidney disease in aboriginal populations has been proposed but it has not been established in their children. Likewise, there is a lack of studies focused on early markers of kidney disease in South American indigenous children. A descriptive prevalence study with an exploratory analysis was conducted between November 2015 and April 2018 on 249 indigenous children aged 5-18 years from the "Institución Educativa Agropecuaria Pueblo Totoroés" in the Totoró indigenous reserve. Eighty-five percent of subjects received exclusive breastfeeding. Spontaneous proteinuria was found in nine subjects, and in one case the proteinuria persisted in a second sample. Isolated hematuria was seen in 1.6% of subjects and blood pressure measurement over the 95th percentile in 7.2%. Overweight and obesity was related to hematuria (P = .009) but weakly related to transient proteinuria (P = .06). Some urinalyses (3.6%) were suggestive of urinary infection, but urine culture was negative in all cases. Hematuria and proteinuria in indigenous children from Totoró are transient and related to overweight and obesity. Early markers of kidney disease can be applied to other indigenous communities. A lower prevalence of chronic underweight than the general Colombian indigenous population was found, which is proposed to be related to prolonged breastfeeding.