Published Paper Details:

Despite the high mortality and financial burden associated with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) in Nigeria, gaps still exist on the epidemiology and management of this non-communicable disease in the country. This study sought to estimate the prevalence of CKD and its distribution in Nigeria using a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of community-based studies that were conducted across the six geopolitical zones of the country. The study employed global best standards and practices in conducting systematic review and meta-analysis. This involved drafting and registration of the work into PROSPERO which was which was reviewed and assigned the registration number: CRD42023441374; adherence to acceptable research philosophies, and use of the PRISMA Framework for identification, screening and selection of quality studies included in the review. The PECO question was raised to guide the study and search for key words while Zotero software was used to manage information that was transferred to Excel sheet (data extraction) before data analysis was done with Medcal Software version 20.009. A total of ten (10) studies that meet the inclusion criteria set in the protocol were used for the meta-regression. Seven thousand and ten (7,010) individuals formed the sample size for the study from the 10 selected articles across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. Test for heterogeneity was conducted using the Cochrane's Q while test for publication bias was conducted using the Begg's test. Result showed that there was significant heterogeneity among the studies across the six geopolitical zones of the nation (P = 0.0001) despite low publication bias noted among the studies (P = 0.8510). This informed the use of the random effect model for the estimation of the pooled prevalence of CKD in Nigeria. The prevalence of CKD in Nigeria was found to be 15.432% (95% CI: 12.291% to 18.860%) which translates to 17,811,828 (95% CI: 14,186,442 to 21,768,473) Nigerians living with the condition. There is therefore an urgent need to scale up public health efforts such as health education and awareness creation against risk factors of the disease, health system strengthening, and innovations needed to manage the high burden of CKD in Nigeria.