Oh YM, et al. - This inquiry was set up to assess the prognostic role of anemia on the clinical course of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and to find out the factors associated with the serum hemoglobin level in COPD. Researchers identified that anemia independently conferred risk for mortality in COPD. They also found that independent factors associated with lower serum hemoglobin level were: aging, lower serum albumin level, and lower body mass index.

Methods

• Researchers analyzed a total of 407 COPD patients enrolled in the Korean obstructive lung disease (KOLD) cohort at 16 hospitals in Korea recruited over 9 years.
• They carried out multivariate Cox regression analysis to investigate independent predictors of survival and multivariate logistic regression analyses to find independent factors.

Results

• Findings demonstrated that in comparison to non-anemic COPD, anemic COPD were older with lower body mass index (BMI) (P<0.001), lower serum cholesterol level (P=0.001), lower serum albumin level (P<0.001), and shorter 6-minute walking distance (P=0.046).
• Significant predictors for all-cause mortality, as revealed in a multivariate Cox regression analysis, included age (P=0.002), BMI (P=0.001), post-bronchodilator forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV₁) (P=0.007), 6-minute walk distance (P=0.008), and anemia (P=0.025).
• In addition, in multivariate regression analysis, the following were identified as independent factors associated with lower serum hemoglobin level: older age (P<0.001), female gender (P=0.001), lower BMI (P=0.016), and lower serum albumin level (P<0.001).