Risk for chronic kidney disease in high school students: Italian report for World Kidney Day 2008-2009.

World Kidney Day (WKD) was conceived in 2003 to inform the general population of the fact that chronic kidney disease is a global, public health threat that frequently occurs with no symptoms, and which can be treated with early detection using simple and inexpensive methods (1). The need for a WKD devoted to kidney diseases arises also from the knowledge that most people are unaware of their blood pressure and the potential presence of abnormalities in their urine. Indeed, some surveys have shown that less than 5% of the general population know where the kidneys are located and what they do (1). The Fondazione Italiana del Rene (FIR; National Kidney Foundation of Italy), in collaboration with the Italian Society of Nephrology and the Red Cross of Italy, has organized, for the general population, a nationwide project of evaluation of blood pressure and urine tests every year on WKD. The results of this project have already been reported (2, 3). During WKD in 2008 and 2009, evaluation of blood pressure and a urine test were carried out in students attending the fourth and fifth year of Italian high school in many Italian cities. This is a unique initiative in the context of those carried out around the world by countries that have observed WKD. The relevance of this screening relies on the fact that this population is seldom evaluated by either pediatricians or general practitioners in the absence of overt disease. Paradoxically, adolescents, having a longer life expectancy than adults, are more exposed to risk factors (3). Therefore, early detection of their urinary abnormalities and/or abnormal blood pressure levels allows action to be taken to reduce the risk of irreversible disease years later.