Key result
Higher hemoglobin variability linked to ~6% greater cardiovascular disease risk per unit increase.
Why the study?
Hemoglobin variability increases cardiovascular mortality in chronic kidney disease, but its association with cardiovascular disease risk in the general population remains unclear.
Does high hemoglobin variability increase the risk of cardiovascular disease in the general adult population?
Cohort (n=198,347)
Does high hemoglobin variability increase the risk of cardiovascular disease in the general adult population?
High hemoglobin variability is independently associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease in the general population, even among individuals classified as low-to-moderate risk.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Hemoglobin variability was associated with higher CVD risk even in low-moderate risk adults; hypothesis-generating, should not yet change practice.
Hemoglobin variability is known to increase cardiovascular mortality in chronic kidney disease, but the association of hemoglobin variability with the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the general population is yet unclear. This retrospective cohort study based on 'the South Korean National Health Insurance Service database' consisted of 198,347 adults who went through all three health examinations. Hemoglobin variability is defined as the average successive variability of three separate hemoglobin values from each health screening period. Participants were followed up for 6 years to determine the risk of coronary heart disease and stroke. We used multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression to examine the adjusted hazard ratios for CVD according to hemoglobin variability. Per 1 unit increase of hemoglobin variability, the risk for CVD (aHR 1.06, 95% CI 1.02-1.09) and stroke (aHR 1.08, 95% CI 1.03-1.13) increased significantly. The risk-increasing trend was preserved in the low-to-moderate risk group of CVDs (aHR 1.07, 95% CI 1.02-1.11). This result suggests that subjects with high hemoglobin variability who would otherwise be categorized as having low-to-moderate CVD risk may have higher risk of CVD than those with low hemoglobin variability.
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Lee et al. (2023) conducted a cohort in Cardiovascular disease (n=198,347). Hemoglobin variability was evaluated on Cardiovascular disease (coronary heart disease and stroke) (aHR 1.06, 95% CI 1.02-1.09). Per 1 unit increase in hemoglobin variability, the risk of cardiovascular disease increased significantly (aHR 1.06) in the general adult population.
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