Objective The objective of this study was to assess knowledge, attitude and practices of undergraduate health sciences students toward chronic kidney disease at Jimma University. Results The overall weighted knowledge, attitude and practices score of the students were 8.6042 (8.26, 8.95), 6.23 (5.93, 6.53) and 2.51 (2.35, 2.67). Many students knew the basic function, symptoms and risk factors of chronic kidney disease. However, the same number of students showed a lack of diagnosis knowledge. Generally, students showed a favorable attitude and practice toward chronic kidney disease. However, they had a poor habit of a hospital visit for routine kidney checkup because of the socio-economic factors. The current study concludes that, despite students showed a good level of knowledge, attitude, and practices toward chronic kidney disease poor knowledge of kidney diagnosis methods and poor practice of visit to biomedical clinics for regular kidney checkup observed. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s13104-019-4426-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a common and growing health problem that requires adequate Knowledge by health care providers to reduce the progress of the disease. Thus, this study aimed to assess the care provider's Knowledge, attitude, and practices toward CKD. Method: A cross-sectional study conducted among 326 care providers at Jimma University Specialized hospital and three medium to higher clinics found in Jimma Town. Collected data entered into Epi-Data version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 21 for windows for data analysis. Descriptive statistics and generalized linear modal used to analyze the data. Result: The mean age and service year of the participants were 29.68(±4.877) and 4.28(±4.561), respectively. The overall weighted Knowledge, attitude, and practice score of the study participant were 9.0971(8.77, 9.42), 2.53(2.4, 2.65), 10.14(9.94, 10.33) respectively. Over half of the care providers had the awareness to use eGFR to assess kidney function and patient referral to Nephrologists. Also, many care providers knew the five-stage of CKD and the risk factors of CKD, such as diabetes, long-term alcohol consumption, anemia, and cardiovascular disorders, respectively. Care providers had an understanding of late detection, and referral of CKD would increase kidney disease complications. Besides, 275(84.4%) of them are worried about treatment costs related to CKD. Over half of the care providers, 238(73.0%), believed that the Ethiopian ministry of health gave less attention to the problem. Furthermore, 234(71.8%) are interested in studying more on CKD management. Majority 256(78.5%), very likely or likely refer the patient to senior physician and Nephrologist. Conclusion: Care providers showed enough Knowledge, a favorable attitude, and practice toward CKD.