The blood urea nitrogen/creatinine (BUN/cre) ratio was U-shaped associated with all-cause mortality in general population.

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to explore the relationship between the blood urea nitrogen/creatinine (BUN/Cre) ratio and all-cause or cause-specific mortality in the general population.

METHODS

Participants were enrolled from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) during 1999 to 2014. Baseline variables were acquired from questionnaires and examinations. Death status were ascertained from National Death Index records. Cox proportional hazards models with cubic spines were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular and cancer mortality.

RESULTS

A total of 42038 participants were enrolled in the study with a median 8.13 years of follow-up. Older people and women tend to have a higher BUN/Cre ratio. After multivariable adjustment, BUN/Cre ratio between 11.43 and 14.64 was associated with the lowest all-cause mortality compared with the participants with the lowest quartile (HR 0.83 [0.76, 0.91];  < 0.001). The highest quartile of BUN/Cre ratio was associated with the lowest risk of cancer mortality (HR 0.64 [0.53, 0.78];  < 0.001). Restricted cubic splines showed BUN/Cre was nonlinearly associated with all-cause mortality and linearly associated with cancer mortality.

CONCLUSIONS

This study confirmed a U-shape relationship between BUN/Cre ratio and all-cause mortality in the general population.