Table 2.

Associations of anemia* with mortality in HIV-infected patients initiating HAART (n = 40,657)

Exposure status	Deaths/person-months	Univariate RR (95% CI)	Trend test P-value	Multivariate RR† (95% CI)	Trend test P-value
Baseline anemia and early mortality‡	3,611/57,047
No anemia	242/9,432	1.00 (ref)	< 0.001	1.00 (ref)	< 0.001
Mild anemia	956/24,106	1.53 (1.33, 1.76)		1.26 (1.09, 1.45)
Moderate anemia	1,592/20,189	2.90 (2.53, 3.32)		1.90 (1.65, 2.18)
Severe anemia	821/3,320	7.31 (6.33, 8.44)		3.32 (2.86, 3.86)
Anemia during follow-up and overall mortality	6,261/1,080,905
No anemia	662/360,985	1.00 (ref)	< 0.001	1.00 (ref)	< 0.001
Mild anemia	1,933/495,826	1.44 (1.32, 1.58)		1.28 (1.17, 1.40)
Moderate anemia	2,429/200,062	2.70 (2.47, 2.95)		2.00 (1.82, 2.19)
Severe anemia	1,237/24,032	7.67 (6.96, 8.46)		3.90 (3.51, 4.32)

BMI = body mass index; HAART = highly active antiretroviral therapy; ref = reference; TB = tuberculosis.

* Baseline anemia defined as: mild (hemoglobin 10 to < 12 g/dL in women or 10 to < 13 g/dL in men), moderate (hemoglobin 7 to < 10 g/dL), and severe (hemoglobin < 7 g/dL). No anemia was defined as hemoglobin ≥ 12 g/dL in women or hemoglobin ≥ 13 g/dL in men.

† Baseline anemia model adjusted for gender, age, district, facility level, BMI and CD4 cell count splines, WHO disease stage, alanine aminotransferase, HAART regimen, iron supplement use, TB history, TB treatment, oral candidiasis, diarrhea, season of visit, and calendar year of HAART initiation. Follow-up anemia model adjusted for gender, district, calendar year of HAART initiation, and time-varying values of facility level, splines for age, BMI and CD4 cell count, WHO disease stage, alanine aminotransferase, HAART regimen, nonadherence to HAART, iron supplement use, TB treatment, oral candidiasis, and diarrhea.

‡ Early mortality defined as mortality in the first 3 months of follow-up.