Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a constellation of heart, brain, and peripheral vascular diseases with common soil hypothesis of etiology, and its subtypes have been well-established in terms of the albumin-mortality association. However, the association between albumin and the mortality of CVD as a whole remains poorly understood, especially the non-linear association. We aimed to investigate the association of albumin levels with long-term mortality of CVD as a whole.
This study included all CVD patients who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES 2011–2014). CVD was defined as coronary heart disease, stroke, heart failure, or any combination of these two or three diseases. Serum albumin was tertile partitioned: tertile 1, <4.1; tertile 2, 4.1–4.3; and tertile 3, >4.3 g/dl. COX proportional hazards model was used to assess the association between the serum albumin levels and CVD mortality. Restricted cubic spline (RCS) curves were used to explore the non-linear relationship.
A total of 1,070 patients with CVD were included in the analysis, of which 156 deaths occurred during a median 34 months of follow-up. On a continuous scale, per 1 g/dl albumin decrease was associated with an adjusted HR (95% CI) of 3.85 (2.38–6.25). On a categorical scale, as compared with tertile 3, the multivariable adjusted hazard ratio (95% CI) was 1.42 (0.74–2.71) for the tertile 2, and 2.24 (1.20–4.16) for the tertile 1, respectively, with respect to mortality. RCS curve analysis revealed a J-shaped association between albumin and CVD mortality.
A J-shaped association between low serum albumin levels and increased long-term mortality of CVD has been revealed. This J-shaped association’s implications for CVD prevention and treatment are deserving of being further studied.