How common is diabetic nephropathy?

Of 1,486 diabetic patients screened for kidney disease, 137 had a serum creatinine over 120 mumol/l, but only 37 of these were aged less than 65. Forty patients (2.7%) had proteinuria exceeding 0.2 grams per 24 hours. The prevalence of hypertension in the clinic as a whole was 15.6%, but 27% in patients with an elevated serum creatinine. After careful consideration of each case, only one patient was identified who might require dialysis. Calculations based on the size of the district population and the percentage of diabetics attending the clinic suggest that the prevalence of end-stage diabetic nephropathy is at present less than eight per million of the total population and that the incidence of patients reaching end-stage each year is less than one per million.