Table 5.

Associations of IDA* with mortality in HIV-infected patients initiating HAART (n = 27,569)

Exposure status	Deaths/person-months	Univariate RR (95% CI)	P-value†	Multivariate RR‡ (95% CI)	P-value†
Baseline anemia and early mortality§	2,869/39,884
No anemia or ID	122/4,716	1.00 (ref)	< 0.001	1.00 (ref)	< 0.001
ID without anemia	57/1,695	1.28 (0.94, 1.76)		1.23 (0.90, 1.69)
Anemia without ID	1,168/16,337	2.61 (2.16, 3.14)		1.74 (1.44, 2.10)
IDA	1,522/17,136	3.15 (2.62, 3.79)		2.16 (1.79, 2.61)
Anemia during follow-up and overall mortality	5,084/878,078
No anemia or ID	549/305,408	1.00 (ref)	< 0.001	1.00 (ref)	< 0.001
ID without anemia	1,511/398,861	1.01 (0.84, 1.22)		1.02 (0.85, 1.24)
Anemia without ID	2,001/155,378	2.06 (1.85, 2.29)		1.63 (1.46, 1.82)
IDA	1,023/18,431	2.36 (2.12, 2.63)		1.87 (1.68, 2.09)

BMI = body mass index; HAART = highly active antiretroviral therapy; ID = iron deficiency; IDA = iron deficiency anemia; ref = reference; TB = tuberculosis.

* Iron deficiency anemia defined as follows: anemia as hemoglobin < 12 g/dL for women or hemoglobin < 13 g/dL for men, and ID as mean corpuscular volume < 80 fL. Anemia and ID exposures were cross-classified to define each individual’s exposure status.

† P-value calculated using the likelihood ratio test.

‡ Baseline exposure model adjusted for gender, age, facility level, BMI, CD4 cell count, WHO disease stage, alanine aminotransferase, HAART regimen, iron use, TB history, TB treatment, oral candidiasis, diarrhea, and calendar year of HAART initiation. The follow-up anemia model also adjusted for gender, facility level, calendar year of HAART initiation, and time-varying values of age, BMI and CD4 cell count splines, WHO disease stage, alanine aminotransferase, HAART regimen, iron use, TB treatment, oral candidiasis, diarrhea, and season of visit.

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