Lack of association between anemia and renal disease progression in Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes

AIMS/INTRODUCTION: Anemia has a close interaction with renal dysfunction in diabetes patients. More proof is still awaited on the relationship between anemia and the progression of renal disease in this population. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In the present longitudinal study, 1,645 Chinese type 2 diabetes patients without end‐stage renal disease were included in the analysis in Nanjing, China, during January 2006 and December 2012. All patients were managed by staged diabetes management protocol, and clinical parameters were collected at each visit. The end‐point of progression of renal disease was evaluated during the follow up. Cox regression analysis was used to estimate the risk of anemia on renal disease progression. RESULTS: On recruitment, 350 (21.3%) patients had anemia, which was more common among those with older ages, longer diabetes duration, lower estimated glomerular filtration rate or more albuminura. On median follow up of 49 months (range 28–62 months), 37 patients (2.2%) developed the defined renal end‐point. Compared with those without anemia, patients with anemia had a higher risk of renal disease progression. However, multivariate analysis showed that anemia lost its statistical significance once estimated glomerular filtration rate was added into the model. Although the incidence of renal disease progression markedly increased by anemia status in patients of estimated glomerular filtration rate <60 mL/min/1.73 m(2), anemia was still not an independent risk factor for renal disease progression in this subgroup. CONCLUSIONS: Anemia was a common finding in Chinese type 2 diabetes patients. Anemia was a risk factor for renal disease progression, but lost its significance once baseline renal function was adjusted.