Preliminary findings of serum creatinine and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) in adolescents with intellectual disabilities.
One in five teens with ID already show elevated creatinine—routine kidney screening should start in adolescence.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Lin et al. (2010) checked blood creatinine in teens with intellectual disability. They wanted to see how many already had early kidney trouble.
The team pulled lab charts from special-education schools. No extra needles, just data that were already there.
What they found
One in five teens had high creatinine. Four in every hundred already met the cutoff for chronic kidney disease stage 3.
Boys and kids with a normal BMI were the most likely to show high numbers.
How this fits with other research
Andrade et al. (2014) looked at older Dutch adults with ID. They found the same 15 % kidney trouble, but added a second test called cystatin-C. Muscle loss in adults can hide CKD if you only use creatinine.
Lin et al. (2009) did the same chart review one year earlier. They checked uric acid instead of creatinine and again saw boys and higher BMI as risk flags. The pattern repeats across blood tests.
Sandberg et al. (2026) will scan full health records across the lifespan. Their early numbers already include these teen creatinine spikes, showing kidney issues start early and stay high.
Why it matters
Kidney disease is silent. These data say start watching it while clients are still in high school. Add a basic metabolic panel to the annual physical. If creatinine is high, refer early and recheck every year. You can slow CKD when you catch it at stage 1 or 2, not later when symptoms show.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The present study aimed to describe the kidney function profile - serum creatinine and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), and to examine the relationships of predisposing factors to abnormal serum creatinine in people with intellectual disabilities (ID). Data were collected by a cross-sectional study of 827 aged 15-18 years adolescents with ID who participated in annual health examinations as they enrolled into special education schools in Taiwan. We used serum samples to determine participants' creatinine profiles, and the Cockcroft-Gault formula to calculate the data of eGFR to present the chronic kidney disease. The results found 22% of the participants have abnormal serum creatinine value (creatinine>1.0mg/dl) and 59.6%, 36.4% and 4.0% at chronic kidney disease (CKD) stage 1, 2 and 3 cases accordingly based on the Cockcroft-Gault formula. No CKD stage 4 and 5 cases in this study. That is, there were 4% CKD cases (eGFR <60 mL/min/1.73 m(2); CKD stage 3, 4 and 5) in adolescents with ID in this study. The results also indicated that gender and BMI could significantly predict abnormal creatinine condition in multivariate logistic regression analysis. Those boys with ID were more likely to have abnormal creatinine value than girls with ID (OR=10.13, 95% CI=5.96-17.23). In term of BMI, those underweight adolescents with ID were less likely to have high creatinine value compared to normal weight group (OR=0.45, 95% CI=0.28-0.72). In summary, this study provides the preliminary information of creatinine and estimated GFR in people with ID; we suggest the public health policy should initiate appropriate management strategies to monitor kidney function and to improve treatment outcomes of chronic kidney disease for this vulnerable population.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2010 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2010.06.021