Prevalence of anemia among chronic kidney disease patients in India: a single-centre study

Abstract

Background: Chronic kidney disease is defined as abnormalities in kidney structure or function with a decreased glomerular filtration rate <60 ml/min for three months or more, irrespective of the cause. CKD has many complications that usually develop throughout disease progression. Anemia is among these complications. The prevalence of anemia is very high among CKD patients and it is an important parameter to be monitored and addressed. This research study aimed to find out the prevalence of anemia among CKD patients and investigate the relationship between anemia and other predictive factors.Methods: This was a unicenter, cross-sectional, prospective observational study conducted for six months between December 2020 and May 2021 at a tertiary care hospital to assess the prevalence of anemia among CKD patients. Data were collected, coded, and analyzed using SPSS software. A descriptive analysis was performed, and significance tests were applied where applicable. Multiple regression analysis and Pearson tests were applied to determine the relationship between variables, p>0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: A total of 715 patients were enrolled in the study, out of which 432 (59.2%) and 292 (40.8%) were male and female, respectively. The mean age was 56.4±15 SD. Out of 715 patients, 531 (74.3%) patients were anemic and 58 (8.1%) were severely anemic. Thus, the prevalence of anemia was 82.4% among study participants. Hypertension, diabetes, and CKD stage were associated with a high prevalence of anemia.Conclusions: This study reported a high prevalence of anemia compared to previous studies. Assessing the anemic status of patients in earlier stages of the disease will contribute greatly to managing this complication.