Glycated Haemoglobin A1c Variability Score Elicits Kidney Function Decline in Chinese People Living with Type 2 Diabetes

Citation

Zhou Y, Huang H, Yan X, Hapca S, Bell S, Qu F, Liu L, Chen X, Zhang S, Shi Q, Zeng X, Wang M, Li N, Du H & Meng W (2022) Glycated Haemoglobin A1c Variability Score Elicits Kidney Function Decline in Chinese People Living with Type 2 Diabetes. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 11 (22), Art. No.: 6692. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm11226692

Abstract
Our aim was to investigate the association of glycated haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) variability score (HVS) with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) slope in Chinese adults living with type 2 diabetes. This cohort study included adults with type 2 diabetes attending outpatient clinics between 2011 and 2019 from a large electronic medical record-based database of diabetes in China (WECODe). We estimated the individual-level visit-to-visit HbA1c variability using HVS, a proportion of changes in HbA1c of ≥0.5% (5.5 mmol/mol). We estimated the odds of people experiencing a rapid eGFR annual decline using a logistic regression and differences across HVS categories in the mean eGFR slope using a mixed-effect model. The analysis involved 2397 individuals and a median follow-up of 4.7 years. Compared with people with HVS ≤ 20%, those with HVS of 60% to 80% had 11% higher odds of experiencing rapid eGFR annual decline, with an extra eGFR decline of 0.93 mL/min/1.73 m2 per year on average; those with HVS > 80% showed 26% higher odds of experiencing a rapid eGFR annual decline, with an extra decline of 1.83 mL/min/1.73 m2 per year on average. Chinese adults with type 2 diabetes and HVS > 60% could experience a more rapid eGFR decline.

Keywords
HbA1c variability; eGFR slope; type 2 diabetes; kidney function decline; electronic medical records

Journal
Journal of Clinical Medicine: Volume 11, Issue 22