Correlation analysis between hemoglobin and type 2 diabetic nephropathy: a two-center retrospective study

TL;DR

This study found that low hemoglobin levels are linked to a higher risk of diabetic nephropathy in type 2 diabetes patients.

Contribution

The study identifies low hemoglobin as a potential predictive biomarker for diabetic nephropathy in type 2 diabetes.

Findings

Lower hemoglobin levels were significantly associated with a higher prevalence of diabetic nephropathy.

The relationship between hemoglobin and diabetic nephropathy remained inverse after adjusting for confounding factors.

Subgroup analyses showed no significant influence of age, gender, or comorbidities on the hemoglobin-DN relationship.

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between hemoglobin (Hb) levels and diabetic nephropathy (DN) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).

We recruited patients with T2DM from two centers, collected their clinical data, and analyzed the relationship between Hb levels and DN using binary logistic regression analysis and restricted cubic spline squares (RCS) plots.

A total of 1956 patients with T2DM were enrolled, including 784 (40.1%) with DN. After adjusting for several confounding factors, the proportion of patients with DN in Q1 of Hb was significantly higher than that in the other group. The RCS curve revealed that Hb levels were inversely proportional to DN. Subgroup analysis demonstrated that age, gender, history of hypertension, history of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and history of diabetic retinopathy exhibited no significant correlation with Hb levels and DN.

Low Hb level is closely associated with DN occurrence, and can be used as a predictive biomarker for DN.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00592-025-02529-9.

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