News
New campaign’s attention-grabbing kidney warning
The cheeky ‘Taking the Piss’ initiative urges at-risk patients to visit their GP and have their kidney health assessed.
The launch of the 'Taking the Piss’ campaign saw an on-the-spot assessment clinic open its doors in Melbourne on Thursday.
A new campaign has embraced toilet humour in a bid to encourage more at-risk people to have their kidney health checked with their GP.
The Kidney Health Australia initiative, branded as ‘Start Taking the Piss’, launched in Melbourne on Thursday, with organisers citing statistics that 77% of people with kidney disease risk factors have not had a urine test in the past 24 months.
The launch, dubbed ‘The Great Australian Piss Take’, saw passersby urged to get an on-the-spot urine risk assessment in the city’s CBD, supported by Flinders University’s International Centre for Point-of-Care Testing.
For those at risk, kidney health checks are recommended either every 12 or 24 months depending on the risk factors involved.
The campaign, which will run across Meta and YouTube this month, features an animated character named Peet expressing regret at not having a test earlier.
Kidney Health Australia Chief Executive Chris Forbes said the campaign is designed to be ‘loud enough to cut through, because the message is not getting across’.
‘We’re using humour to cut through the stigma, and get people finally talking about kidney disease,’ he said.
‘We need Australians at risk to literally take the piss, so we developed a campaign to get the message across.’
Dr Peter Markey, Chair of RACGP Specific Interests Public Health, says he is surprised at the 77% figure.
‘People with risk factors should have a regular test because it’s important for them and their GP to know what their status is,’ he told newsGP.
‘Most of those groups at risk, you would think they would have to visit their GP regularly anyway.
‘That’s an opportunity for that test to be done, so I guess it’s worth reminding GPs not to miss the opportunity.
‘If you are at risk, if you do have one of the risk factors, renal function can all of a sudden go south.’
The campaign website includes a referral letter for people to take to their GPs, requesting a full kidney health check, including:
- a blood test to determine eGFR
- a urine ACR (albumin: creatinine ratio) test
- and a blood pressure check.
It also describes kidney disease as ‘a hidden disease’, with around one in seven Australians living with markers of the condition but unaware of it.
Dr Markey is unconvinced personally about the campaign’s style (‘you can’t argue taste’) but is hopeful it will lead it to more people with the nine risk factors going for assessments including a blood test, blood pressure check and a urine test.
‘Hopefully they’ll do some monitoring and see if there’s any change as part of the program,’ he said.
For more details on the campaign, see the Kidney Health Australia website. You can also find details on kidney health in the RACGP’s Red Book.
Log in below to join the conversation
Chronic Kidney Disease CKD kidney kidneys
newsGP weekly poll
To what extent do current digital health systems impact administrative workload in your practice?