Prevalence and Incidence of Moderate and Severe Chronic Renal Failure in South‐western Finland, 1973–76

. In an area of south-western Finland with 195 000 inhabitants and a highly centralized health care system, all subjects with elevated serum creatinine (≥230 μmol/1) were registered on the basis of data collected from all hospitals and clinical laboratories of the region. The prevalence of chronic renal failure (S-creatinine ≥230 μmol/1) was 67 per 100 000 inhabitants and that of severe chronic renal failure (S-creatinine ≥500 μmol/1) 12.3/105. The annual incidence of chronic renal failure (S-creatinine ≥230 μmol/1) was 31.7 per 100 000 inhabitants and that of severe chronic renal failure (S-creatinine ≥500 μmol/1) 11.9/105. Age-specific prevalences and incidences rose progressively with age and were very high in the aged population. Chronic interstitial nephritis, in a broad sense, was the most common cause of chronic renal failure, and it was related to analgesic abuse in about half of the cases. Eleven of 68 subjects entering the study with a serum creatinine ≥500 μmol/1 had no previous knowledge of their chronic renal disease.