The Effect of Body Mass Index on Patient and Graft Survival Rate in Kidney Transplanted Patients in Iran

The number of patients with overweight and obesity requiring renal transplant in the past 2 decades increased considerably.
The current study aimed at evaluating the effect of body mass index (BMI) on graft and patients survival rate.
Design: In the current retrospective, cross sectional study, transplant recipients were divided into 3 groups based on their BMI: group 1 (BMI 25 kg/m2). Kaplan-Meier formula was used to calculate the patient survival rate, log-rank test to compare the survival curves, analysis of variance (ANOVA) to compare continuous variables, and the Chi-square test to compare the classified data. Statistical analysis was performed by SPSS version 19. P values ≤ 0.05 were considered significant.
The 5-year follow-up on patients’ survival rate in groups 1, 2, and 3 was 91% ± 0.03%, 91% ± 0.01%, and 80 ± 0.03%, respectively. Also, the 5-year graft survival rate in groups 1, 2, and 3 was 90% ± 0.02%, 85% ± 0.02%, and 76 ± 0.03%, respectively. There were significant differences between BMI status and gender of the recipients (P value = 0.003) and those of the donors (P value = 0.003), type of kidney in donors (P value = 0.001), type of dialysis in recipient (P value = 0.001), history of type 2 diabetes mellitus in recipient (P value = 0.001), recipient age (P value = 0.001), duration of hospitalization (P = 0.026), cholesterol levels after 1 year (P value = 0.001), and BMI status of the recipient.
The results also indicated that the graft survival rate of the recipients was not statistically different in terms of BMI; thus, the results suggested that to allow of counting in patients included overweight and obesity kidney transplantation as appropriate action treatment.