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

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.