Objective Our research investigated the connection between anemia and all‐cause mortality. Methods This study included cancer patients from the NHANES (2003–2018) cycles. The causes of death and mortality status of the participants were obtained from the National Death Index records. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression models and subgroup analyses were utilized to evaluate the relationship between anemia and all‐cause mortality in cancer patients. Propensity score matching was employed to identify patients with similar baseline characteristics and to adjust for bias caused by potential confounding factors. Results A total of 1789 participants were included in this study. During a median follow‐up of 77.0 months, 592 of the 1789 cancer patients (33.1%) died. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression showed a significantly higher death risk among anemic patients compared to nonanemic patients within the cancer population (HR = 1.85, 95% CI: 1.11 to 3.09) after all covariates were adjusted. Even mild anemia is associated with a considerable and clinically underappreciated mortality risk. Conclusions Anemia is associated with all‐cause mortality in cancer patients, and further research is needed to explore the heterogeneity across different types of cancer.
Yang et al. (Thu,) studied this question.