Hawaii residents have a 30 percent greater chance of suffering kidney failure than the national average, but many people in the early stages of kidney disease have no idea they have it, according to the National Kidney Foundation of Hawaii.

"The problem is that awareness of chronic kidney disease is very low," Glen Haya­shida, chief executive officer of the foundation, said Thursday at an event marking World Kidney Day. "When your kidney fails, you know it. The kidney is a vital organ. But in the early stages of kidney disease, there is almost no awareness."

"We are not catching the disease early," he said. "We’re catching it really late."

To help remedy that, the foundation is offering free screenings from 8:30 a.m. to noon today at the Ala Moana Hotel’s Garden Lanai. Screenings are available for people 18 years or older who may have high blood pressure, diabetes or a family history of kidney disease.

"It’s not a diagnosis; it’s a screening and it’s free," said Victoria Page, director of community health initiatives for the National Kidney Foundation of Hawaii. "It’s a good way to get started. We encourage everyone to come out."

The assessment involves a health-risk appraisal, blood pressure measurement, blood and urine testing, and a chance to review results with clinicians on site.

"One out of 9 people in the U.S. have chronic kidney disease, and 1 in 7 in Hawaii," Haya­shida said. "Hawaii is greater than the average because of the composition of our ethnic groups. Asians and Pacific Islanders are two to four times more likely to reach end-stage kidney disease, which is kidney failure."

In Hawaii an estimated 156,000 people have chronic kidney disease, he said. More than 3,000 of them are in kidney failure, requiring dialysis or a transplant, a huge jump from close to 400 patients in 1980.

Hayashida said a report due out later this year in the American Journal of Kidney Disease projects that 1 in 3 U.S. residents is at risk of developing chronic kidney disease. In Hawaii, he said, the rate could be closer to 1 out of 2, given its ethnic composition.

"The reason why they are at risk is because of hypertension and diabetes," Haya­shida said. "Diabetes, especially here in Hawaii, is the biggest driver to kidney failure and kidney disease."

The rate of kidney failure — the last stage in chronic kidney disease — is 30 percent higher in Hawaii than the national average, Haya­shida said.

Jane Idica, director of operations of DSI Renal in Hawaii, said the company has to keep opening clinics to meet demand for dialysis service.

"Now we’ve got patients in their 90s," she said. "We also have younger patients in their teens or twenties. A lot of our facilities are full."

The financial toll for such care is huge. Dialysis patients account for 1 percent of the Medicare population nationally but 8 percent of the Medicare costs, Idica said. She called for education and prevention through healthy diet choices, as well as screening and early diagnosis.

Dr. Alan Cheung, a transplant surgeon at the Queen’s Medical Center, thanked legislators and the governor for their help in ensuring that kidney and liver transplants could continue in Hono­lulu after Hawaii Medical Center closed in December 2011.

Cheung said transplants offer a better quality of life for patients than dialysis and that the surgery is cheaper in the long run. Organ recipients also tend to live longer than people on dialysis, he said. The problem is a shortage of organs.

"We have 362 patients on our kidney transplant wait list," Cheung said. "Every month, about 30 new dialysis patients get referred to us."

State Sen. Gil Kahele, who attended the forum, said he has a personal stake in the issue. His mother died at age 80 after several years of dialysis.

"I know what a family goes through when someone has renal disease," Kahele said. "I think raising awareness is very important. If you’ve got high blood pressure, if you’ve got diabetes, it equals kidney failure eventually."

Kahele said he used to drink soda, then switched to diet soda, but now realizes the best thing to do is to "drink water, drink water."