Kidney Health Biomarkers and Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate Among Indonesian Tofu Production Workers: A Pilot Cross-Sectional Study

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Small-scale food-production workers may experience heat strain, dehydration, and combustion-related exposures, but evidence on early kidney injury in these settings remains limited. This pilot study aimed to describe serum and urinary kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1) and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) profiles and to assess, exploratorily, whether these biomarkers discriminated an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR)-defined kidney-function category among Indonesian tofu production workers.

METHODS: A cross-sectional complete-case analysis included 32 workers from small-scale tofu production units in East Java, Indonesia. Serum creatinine, serum and urinary KIM-1, and serum and urinary NGAL were measured using laboratory microplate-based assays. eGFR was calculated using the CKD-EPI creatinine equation;