Anemia and its predictors among adult non-dialysis chronic kidney disease patients in Southern Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background

Anemia is an adverse outcome and common complication in chronic kidney disease patients. This is usually associated with iron deficiency, inflammation and blood loss. However, little is known about the prevalence of anemia and its predictors among chronic kidney disease patients in Southern Ethiopia. This study aimed to determine anemia and its predictors among adult non-dialysis chronic kidney disease patients in Southern Ethiopia.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted on 384 chronic kidney disease patients from February to April 2019. Socio-demographic and clinical data were collected using questionnaires and medical records. Adjusted hemoglobin was taken to define anemia using the level of Hgb <13 mg/dL for males and <12 mg/dL for females; and blood films and serum ferritin were done for anemic participants. SPSS version 25.0 was used for data analysis. Frequency distribution tables and graphs were used to describe descriptive statistics. A bivariate logistic regression model was used to determine the predictors; p <.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results

Overall prevalence of anemia was 44.0% (95% CI: 39.0%, 48.9%); of which 7.1%, 62.1% and 30.8% of anemic patients had mild, moderate and severe anemia, respectively. The prevalence of anemia increased from 20.6% in stage 2 to 100% in stage 5. Morphologically, normocytic normochromic anemia was the most predominant type. Cardiovascular disease (AOR = 2.37, 95% CI: 1.35, 4.16), diabetes mellitus (AOR = 2.77, 95% CI: 1.08, 7.14), stage 3b chronic kidney disease (AOR = 2.74, 95% CI: 1.31, 5.73) and stage 4 and 5 chronic kidney disease patients (AOR = 7.11, 95% CI: 3.22, 15.72) showed significant association with anemia.

Conclusion

Anemia was a severe public health problem and associated with cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus and stages of chronic kidney disease. Thus, early diagnosis, treatment and prevention of anemia are recommended.

Keywords:

• Anemia
• chronic kidney disease
• Hawassa
• Shashemene
• Southern Ethiopia

Transparency

Declaration of funding

The authors received no specific funding for this work.

Declaration of financial/other relationships

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

CMRO peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Author contributions

A.K.: conceived the study, recruited the patients, collected the data, performed laboratory tests, and analyzed and summarized the results. A.K., A.G., B.W. and B.E.: obtained ethics papers, supervised the collection of data and revised the draft, analyzed and interpreted the collected data, and wrote the draft of the manuscript. B.E., B.W.: ensured quality of the laboratory results and revised the draft of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to give a sincere acknowledgment to the study participants for their patience and cooperation in this study.

Data availability statement

The datasets that were used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.