Socioeconomic status and microalbuminuria in an Asian population

Background. In studies from developed Western countries, lowersocioeconomic status (SES) has been reported to be associatedwith kidney diseases. However, this hypothesis has not beenexamined in populations from newly industrialized Asian countries.We evaluated the association between SES and micro/macroalbuminuriain a population-based sample in Singapore. Methods. We examined 920 participants of Malay ethnicity aged40–80 years (49.6% female). SES was defined through education,income and housing type of participants. The main outcome ofinterest was the presence of micro/macroalbuminuria definedas a urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR) 17 mg/g for menand 25 mg/g for women. Results. Lower categories of SES were associated with micro/macroalbuminuria;compared to the higher categories of SES, the odds ratio (95%confidence interval) of micro/macroalbuminuria was 1.76 (1.23–2.52)for primary/lower education, 1.64 (1.16–2.31) for income<1000 Singapore dollars (SGD)/retired status, 1.44 (1.01–2.06)for small/medium housing type and 2.37 (1.56–3.60) forthe coexistence of all three low SES factors (primary/ beloweducation, income <1000 SGD/retired status and small/mediumhousing type) compared to 1 low SES factor. This pattern ofassociation was consistently present in subgroup analyses bygender and age. Conclusions. Lower SES is associated with the presence of micro/macroalbuminuriaindependent of age, gender, smoking, alcohol intake and bodymass index among Malay adults in Singapore.