Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2008 Jan 14:8:1.
doi: 10.1186/1471-2318-8-1.

Prevalence of anaemia in older persons: systematic review

Helen Gaskell  1 , Sheena Derry, R Andrew Moore, Henry J McQuay
Affiliations

Prevalence of anaemia in older persons: systematic review

Helen Gaskell et al. BMC Geriatr. .

Abstract

Background: Ageing populations will impact on healthcare provision, especially since extra years are not necessarily spent in good health. It is important to identify and understand the significance of common medical problems in older people. Anaemia may be one such problem. We report on the prevalence of anaemia in cohorts of elderly people in the general population. The presence of anaemia is associated with a worse prognosis for both morbidity and mortality.

Methods: Electronic searching and reference lists of published reports were used to identify studies that reported on prevalence of anaemia in cohorts of at least 100 individuals predominantly aged 65 years and over living in developed countries, together with criteria used to define anaemia. Studies of anaemia prevalence in specific disease groups or published before 1980 were excluded. Prevalence data for the entire cohort, for men and women separately and for different age bands were extracted.

Results: Forty-five studies contributed data. Thirty-four studies (n = 85,409) used WHO criteria to define anaemia. The weighted mean prevalence was 17% (3-50%) overall, and 12% (3-25%) in studies based in the community (27, n = 69,975), 47% (31-50%) in nursing homes (3, n = 1481), and 40% (40-72%) in hospital admissions (4, n = 13,953). Anaemia prevalence increased with age, was slightly higher in men than women, and was higher in black people than white. Most individuals classified as anaemic using WHO criteria were only mildly anaemic.

Conclusion: Anaemia, as defined by WHO criteria, is common in older people living in the community and particularly common in nursing home residents and hospital admissions. Predicted demographic changes underline the need to understand more about anaemia in older people.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Anaemia prevalence according to the size of cohort (non-linear inset scale). Yellow symbols represent older people living in the community, blue those in nursing homes, and red admission to hospital.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Anaemia prevalence by age range. Size of the symbol is proportional to the size of the cohort (inset scale)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. World Health Organization, ageing and life course http://www.who.int/ageing/en
    1. Government Actuary's Department http://www.gad.gov.uk
    1. U.S. Census Bureau http://www.census.gov
    1. World Health Organisation . Nutritional anemia: report of a WHO Scientific Group. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organisation; 1968.
    1. Beutler E, Waalen J. The definition of anaemia: what is the lower limit of normal of the blood hemoglobin concentration? Blood. 2006;107:1747–1750. doi: 10.1182/blood-2005-07-3046. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types