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Urinary creatinine concentrations in an industrial workforce and comparison with reference values of the general population

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Abstract

Purpose

Urinary creatinine is an important parameter for the adjustment of metabolite concentrations in differently diluted urine specimens, as a reference dimension for biological limit or guidance values and as a selection criterion for spot urine samples in human biomonitoring. While the creatinine output of the general population has been well described in environmental surveys, this study focused specifically on creatinine concentrations in a large industrial workforce in order to compare these data with the general population and to provide a database for the calculation of a reasonable conversion factor between volume-related and creatinine-adjusted data and vice versa.

Methods

Urinary creatinine was analysed in 6,438 spot urine samples by a photometric assay in the time period between 1989 and 2009. Basic demographic data (age, sex, body weight, body height) and job category (apprentices, skilled craftsmen, skilled chemical workers, foremen, laboratory staff and executives) were considered in a statistical analysis.

Results

The median concentration of urinary creatinine in all urine samples was 1.36 g/L with male employees showing significantly higher values (1.37 g/L, n = 6,148 samples) than female employees (1.00 g/L, n = 290) and concentrations ranging from 0.01 up to 9.76 g/L. Age, body mass index and job category were significant influence factors on urinary creatinine. About 92 % of all samples showed creatinine concentrations between 0.3 and 3.0 g/L, a range recommended by the World Health Organization as a criterion for valid spot urine samples.

Discussion

The results of this study correspond well with data from environmental surveys and with recent data from an active workforce in industry with similar sampling strategies. Therefore, a median of 1.4 g creatinine per litre urine seems to be a reasonable value for general calculations and adjustments. The study data also support the validity of the current recommendations by the WHO and several scientific committees and institutions with respect to creatinine limits in spot urine samples for occupational-medical biomonitoring.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. Mei Yong and Mr Michael Schuster, Competence Center Epidemiology, Occupational Medicine & Health Protection, BASF SE, Ludwigshafen, for their support and Mr. Friedhelm Eberle, formerly Clinical Laboratory, Occupational Medicine and Health Protection, BASF SE, Ludwigshafen, for urinary creatinine determinations.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. BASF SE, Ludwigshafen, Germany

    Michael Bader, Peter Messerer & Wolfgang Will

Authors
  1. Michael Bader
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  2. Peter Messerer
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  3. Wolfgang Will
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael Bader.

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Bader, M., Messerer, P. & Will, W. Urinary creatinine concentrations in an industrial workforce and comparison with reference values of the general population. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 86, 673–680 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-012-0802-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-012-0802-4

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