The Neutrophil Percentage-to-Albumin Ratio as a Biomarker for All-Cause and Diabetes-Cause Mortality Among Diabetes Patients: Evidence From the NHANES 1988-2018

Background Neutrophil percentage-to-albumin ratio (NPAR) was significantly correlated with diabetes-related complications. There are little data about NPAR and mortality risk in individuals with diabetes. Methods This study included 3858 diabetes patients from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) conducted from 1988 to 2018. Using a restricted cubic spline (RCS), the relationship between the NPAR and mortality risk was shown. Multivariable Cox regression models were used to evaluate the relationship between the NPAR and diabetes-cause and all-cause death. An examination of the time-dependent receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was used to assess how well the NPAR predicted survival outcomes. Results Among 3858 diabetes individuals, a total of 1198 (31.1%) died over a mean follow-up of 7.86 years; of these, 326 (8.4%) had diabetes-related deaths and 872 (22.6%) had deaths from other causes. The RCS regression analysis showed a positive linear association between the NPAR and all-cause and diabetes-cause mortality. High NPAR group had a significantly higher risk of all-cause and diabetes-cause mortality in univariate and multivariate analysis. Compared with low NPAR group, high NPAR group had a low survival rate of diabetes cases in all-cause death and diabetes-cause mortality with area under the curve of the 3-, 5-, and 10-year ROC curve being 0.725, 0.739, and 0.734 for all-cause mortality and 0.754, 0.752, and 0.745 for diabetes-cause mortality, respectively. Conclusion In summary, we examined 3858 diabetes patients from NHANES database (1998-2018) and suggested NPAR as a biomarker for all-cause and diabetes-cause mortality prediction.