History of anemia and long-term mortality due to infection: a cohort study with 12 years follow-up in South Korea

BACKGROUND: Anemia, which is a condition with reduced healthy red blood cells, is reported to be closely related to the development of infectious diseases. We aimed to investigate the association between history of anemia and 12-year mortality rate due to infections, and compare it with that among non-anemic individuals. METHODS: Data from the National Health Insurance Service Health Screening Cohort were used in this population-based cohort study. Adults who underwent standardized medical examination between and 2002–2003 were included, and the mortality rate due to infection between 2004 and 2015 was analyzed. Individuals were considered to have a history of anemia if the serum hemoglobin level in 2002–2003 was < 12 g/dL for women and < 13 g/dL for men. The severity of anemia at that time was categorized as mild (12 g/dL > hemoglobin ≥11 g/dL in women and 13 g/dL > hemoglobin ≥11 g/dL in men), moderate (hemoglobin 8–10.9 g/dL), or severe (hemoglobin < 8 g/dL). Propensity score (PS) matching and Cox regression analysis were used as statistical methods. RESULTS: Overall, 512,905 individuals were included in this study. The mean age of the participants was 54.5 years old (range: 40–98), and 49,042 (9.6%) individuals were classified in the anemic group, which comprised of 36,383 (7.1%), 11,787 (2.3%), and 872 (0.2%) participants in the mild, moderate, and severe sub-groups, respectively. After PS matching, 49,039 individuals in each group were included in the analysis. The risk of mortality due to infection in the anemic group was 1.77-fold higher (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.77, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.52–2.60; P < 0.001) than that in the non-anemic group. In the subgroup analysis, the mild and moderate anemia groups had 1.38-fold (HR: 1.38, 95% CI: 1.23 to 1.55; P < 0.001) and 2.02-fold (HR: 2.02, 95% CI: 1.62 to 2.50; P < 0.001) risk of mortality due to infection compared to that of the non-anemic group, respectively. The severe anemia group did not have a significantly different risk of mortality due to infection (P = 0.448). CONCLUSIONS: History of anemia was associated with increased mortality rate due to infection at 12-year follow-up. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12879-021-06377-0.