08 mars 2023
On the eve of World Kidney Day, a key body in the regulation and purification of our body, a survey takes stock of the knowledge of the French in this area. Result: they are largely perfectible.
It is an Ipsos survey conducted for the pharmaceutical group AstraZeneca* which affirms it: the level of knowledge of the French concerning the kidney is “concerning”. Thus, 48% of the 4,000 people questioned online at the beginning of February think that the kidney is not essential to the functioning of the human body.
However, the role of this pair of organs is crucial. Located below and behind the liver for the right kidney, and below and behind the spleen for the left kidney, “they eliminate the waste products that come from the body’s functioning and maintain the chemical balance of the blood. If the kidneys no longer work, these waste products accumulate in the blood and become toxic”recalls the CHU of Poitiers.
When functioning normally, the kidneys allow “clean” blood to flow back into the body. The “waste” is drained into the bladder which excretes urine. But that’s not all: the kidneys also serve to regulate blood pressure, stimulate the production of red blood cells and regulate the absorption of calcium.
Early detection
Another lesson from the survey: 36% of people questioned consider that kidney problems do not have very serious consequences for health. And only 13% of them have already heard of chronic kidney disease, which nevertheless concerns one in ten people in France. A disease that evolves quietly and is often discovered by chance, during a blood test.
The risk factors for developing this disease – diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity – are also largely ignored: 78% of people questioned said they did not know them. And so are its potentially serious consequences (cardiovascular complications, dialysis treatment, need for a transplant, death).
Hence the urgency of early detection of chronic kidney disease in people at risk, argue AstraZeneca and its partners, patient associations and learned societies. This is very easy to implement: a blood pressure measurement, a urine analysis to measure the albumin level and a blood test to measure the creatinine level.
* In partnership with the patient associations Alliance du Coeur, the National Collective of Obese Associations (CNAO) and France Rein
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Source : Ipsos – The kidney, the forgotten organ – A survey on French people’s knowledge of the kidney and chronic kidney disease – CHU de Poitiers – March 2023
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Written by : Charlotte David – Edited by: Emmanuel Ducreuzet