Association of neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio with cardiovascular and all-cause mortality in patients receiving chronic hemodialysis: Systematic review and meta-analysis

Table 3 Subgroup analysis of the included studies on the association of neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio with all-cause mortality

Variables	Number of studies	No. of patients	aHR (95%CI)	P value	I2
Study design
Prospective	5	786	1.63 (1.66-2.27)	0.004	67.1
Retrospective	6	7111	1.17 (1.07-1.29)	0.0008	87.7
Sample size
≥ 200	5	7131	1.11 (1.02-1.21)	0.016	81.6
< 200	6	766	1.35 (1.16-1.56)	< 0.0001	52
Age (years)
≥ 57	5	6722	1.07 (1.00-1.14)	0.048	72.2
< 57	6	1175	1.42 (1.21-1.67)	< 0.0001	57.4
Males%
≥ 60%	4	719	1.30 (1.16-1.46)	< 0.0001	45.5
< 60%	7	7178	1.14 (1.03-1.25)	0.008	79.2
Diabetes (%)
≥ 30	4	6730	1.14 (1.04-1.25)	0.008	91.2
< 30	5	1009	1.62 (1.20-2.19)	0.001	69.5
NLR
≥ 3.5	5	6806	1.08 (1.02-1.14)	0.01	71.8
2.5-3.5	6	1091	1.54 (1.33-1.78)	< 0.0001	14
Hemoglobin (g/dL)
≥ 10.5	5	1045	1.37 (1.06-1.76)	0.02	91
< 10.5	4	986	1.17 (1.00-1.36)	0.04	75.8
Creatinine (mg/dL)
≥ 7.7	5	1003	1.42 (1.16-1.73)	0.0006	60.7
< 7.7	3	718	1.43 (0.77-2.67)	0.26	64
Serum albumin (g/dL)
≥ 3.5	6	6685	1.53 (1.21-1.94)	0.0004	57.6
< 3.5	4	1026	1.13 (1.03-1.24)	0.007	90.6
Serum ferritin (ng/mL)
≥ 340	3	418	1.29 (1.11-1.49)	0.0008	56.4
< 340	2	381	1.34 (1.09-1.64)	0.004	< 0.0001

NLR: Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio; HR: Hazard ratio.