Association between dietary protein intake and mortality among patients with diabetic kidney disease

Abstract

Aims: This study aimed to investigate the association between dietary protein intake and mortality among patients with diabetic kidney disease.

Methods: The research encompassed a total of 2901 participants diagnosed with diabetic kidney disease, drawn from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). To determine outcomes related to all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, connections were established with the National Death Index up until December 31, 2019. Estimations of hazard ratios (HRs) and their corresponding 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) were conducted using Cox proportional hazard ratio models.

Results: During the 261,239 person-years of follow-up, 1236 deaths were recorded. After multivariate adjustment, the weighted hazard ratio (HR) and 95 % CIs for participants with 1.0-1.2 g/kg of protein intake was 0.65 (0.44, 0.96) for all-cause mortality. A higher proportion of animal protein intake was found to be associated with an increased mortality risk. Stratified analyses showed that higher protein intake benefited older participants.

Conclusions: In diabetic kidney disease patients, 1.0-1.2 g/kg of protein was associated with lower mortality and 0.6-1.2 g/kg of protein especially benefitted patients ≥60 years.

Keywords: Epidemiology; NHANES; Protein; Type 2 diabetes.