Risk factors for anemia in patients with chronic kidney disease: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND Anemia in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) presents significant impacts on patients, the health-care system, and financial resources. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the risk factors of anemia among CKD patients. METHODS This meta-analysis was conducted in accordance with the guidelines of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Protocols statement guidelines. Studies were identified through systematic searches in September 2021 with no restrictions on date and time, and publication status using the following bibliographic databases: Embase, Medline, PubMed, Web of Science, Science Direct, and the Cochrane Library. The search was conducted using the following terms and phrases: "anemia", "risk factors", "associated factors", "chronic kidney injury", "chronic kidney disease", and "chronic renal insufficiency". The quality of each included study was assessed according to the Newcastle-Ottawa scale. Meta-analysis was performed using STATATM version 14 statistical software for WindowsTM. RESULTS The results of this systematic review and meta-analysis will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. CONCLUSION This meta-analysis may help policymakers and program managers design evidence-based interventions on preventing the occurrence of anemia with CKD patient populations.