Original Article
The prevalence and etiology of anemia in urban community dwelling elderly population in Beijing
Shangyong Ning, Naibai Chang, Xiaoyan Han, Xing Liu, Yingwei Duan, Yuhong Liu, Tao Liu, Xiaoli Duan, Ninghua Li, Jian Guo, Wei Wang, Yun Fan, Jiangtao Li
Published 2016-04-01
Cite as Chin J Intern Med, 2016, 55(4): 289-292. DOI: 10.3760/cma.j.issn.0578-1426.2016.04.008
Abstract
ObjectiveTo estimate the prevalence of anemia in urban community dwelling elderly population.
MethodsThis study was a cross-sectional survey of prevalence of anemia in randomly selected community dwelling residents aged over 65 years in Beijing. Anemia was defined as hemoglobin concentration less than 130 g/L in men and 120 g/L in women.
ResultsThe hemoglobin concentration was (135.65±14.48) g/L in total of 1 947 eligible participants and was much higher in men than in women [(142.56±15.56) g/L vs (130.95±11.53) g/L, P<0.001]. There were 288 (14.8%) patients with anemia, including 16.3%(129/789) in men and 13.7%(159/1 158) in women. The prevalence of anemia increased significantly with age, which was 7.6% in 65-69 years, 10.8% in 70-74 years, 18.8% in 75-79 years and 24.1% over 80 years (P<0.001). Two hundred and seventy-nine (96.9%) subjects were mild anemia, 8 (2.8%) moderate, only 1 subject (0.3%) severe. Unexplained anemia was predominant, which accounted for 63.2%. Only 16.7% people were diagnosed as nutritional anemia, renal anemia 5.2%, anemia of chronic disease (ACD) 12.2%. There were 2.4% people with overlapped renal anemia and ACD. Compared with non-anemic subjects, more subjects with unexplained anemia represented macrocytosis (7.1% vs 3.2%, P=0.007).
ConclusionsAnemia is a common health problem in urban community dwelling elderly population. Most subjects have anemia with unknown origin. Further investigation is needed to explore the mechanism and related factors of elderly anemia.
Key words:
Anemia; Aged; Prevalence; Etiology
Contributor Information
Shangyong Ning
Naibai Chang
Department of Hematology, Beijing Hospital, Beijing 100730, China
Xiaoyan Han
Xing Liu
Yingwei Duan
Yuhong Liu
Tao Liu
Xiaoli Duan
Ninghua Li
Jian Guo
Wei Wang
Yun Fan
Jiangtao Li