The epidemiological study of end-stage renal disease among patients admitted to hemodialysis wards of Ayatollah Taleghani and Imam Khomeini hospitals in Urmia city of Iran, in the 2020's second half

Chronic kidney disease (CKD), mainly its final stage, known as end-stage renal disease (ESRD), is one of the major challenges for the healthcare system in Iran, and deserves more reflections. Against this background, the present study aimed to elucidate the epidemiology of ESRD among the patients, undergoing permanent treatment, admitted to the hemodialysis (HD) wards of the selected hospitals in Urmia, Iran.

In this descriptive-analytical study, using the census method for sampling, we investigated patients experiencing permanent treatment and admitted to the HD wards of the selected hospitals in Urmia, Iran, from October 2020 to March 2021. The criteria for entering the study are the availability of medical record and ESRD cases. On the other hand, the cases receiving intermittent HD were excluded. Furthermore, a checklist was utilized to collect the required data.

The ESRD patients' mean age was 60.63. Also, 59.6% of the cases were male, and the rest (40.4%) was female. Besides, 54.7% of these patients had degrees below high school diplomas, and 72.8% was living in urban areas. The most frequently occurring blood type was O, and the majority of the patients were the Rhesus positive. The average level of serum creatinine was also 20.7 mg/dL. Moreover, the most common underlying diseases were hypertension (HTN) and diabetes mellitus (DM), respectively.

The study findings revealed that monitoring and controlling chronic diseases, such as HTN and DM, as well as raising more awareness among the patients with low literacy, could significantly contribute to managing CKD and its progress.