OBJECTIVES: AND BACKGROUND Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is an important public health problem with high prevalence, morbidity and mortality. A large number of patients are below the poverty line and have low monetary allocations for healthcare, increasing the economic burden of treatment of CKD. In non-dialysis-dependent (NDD) patients, untreated anemia of CKD leads to higher costs, higher healthcare resource utilization (HRU), and lower health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Limited resources and lack of protection against catastrophic health spending have led to over-reliance on out-of-pocket health expenditure. This in turn results in exposure to high financial risk, which pushes patients and their families into catastrophic poverty.

METHODS: We conducted a quick scoping review to estimate the health and economic burden on patients with chronic kidney diseases in India. Three databases namely Pubmed, Scopus and Web of science were assessed for published reports of chronic kidney disease and economic burden in India. A scoping review was developed using this reports

RESULTS: The direct medical cost including drug charges, investigations, hemodialysis, hospitalization, transplantation charges and peritoneal dialysis accounted for 35% of the total average annual expenditure per patient in rupees. An average annual out of pocket expenditure for CKD in India is about 364,488 per patient. Among the chronic kidney patients 87% of them were spending more than 100% of their monthly income in public hospitals for dialysis.

CONCLUSIONS: Our study reassert that CKD is exerting severe strain on health policies and enormous economic burden on chronic renal disease patients. The study highlighted the need for lifestyle interventions and controlling progression of CKD in India.