A health screening program in the Zuni community.

High rates of obesity, hypertension and Type 2 diabetes are well recognized in most southwestern Indian communities. This study examines renal disease in the Navajo, Zuni and Rio Grande pueblo Indians of the Southwest. This disease is due to non-diabetic mesangialproliferative glomerulonephritis, often with mesangial immunoglobulin deposition. The authors conducted the health-screening program in the Zuni community, assaying weight, blood pressure, glucose tolerance, and the prevalence of urinalysis abnormalities, as a potential marker of unsuspected renal disease. Method: Participation in the health screen was voluntary. A total of 1176 subjects were screened or 15.6% of the Zuni community. Each subject answered a brief questionnaire, which included questions on menstruation and pregnancy for females. Height, weight, blood pressure and the results of a dipstick urinalysis were recorded for each subject. Also, noted were the results of a random postprandial blood glucose on those over 18 years of age. Menstruating and pregnant females were excluded from the report on urinalysis results. The prevalence of obesity was high in all the Zunis screened. The prevalence was significantly greater in females than in males for the aggregate population and for each age group after the age of 10 years. Glucose intolerance rates rose in each age group to an approximate 30% prevalence in those over the age of 40 years, with the rise of significance for both females and for males. Females over 20 had a greater prevalence than males. Frequencies of hematuria and proteinuria combined were very high for adults over the age of 40, female and male, with on difference between sexes. Synthesis of clinical observations and the screening results suggest a scenario for mesangialproliferative glomerulonephritis in the Zunis. The earliest marker of disease appears to be microscopic hematuria