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. 2014:2014:176182.
doi: 10.1155/2014/176182. Epub 2014 Dec 4.

Prevalence and severity of anaemia stratified by age and gender in rural India

Gerardo Alvarez-Uria  1 , Praveen K Naik  1 , Manoranjan Midde  1 , Pradeep S Yalla  1 , Raghavakalyan Pakam  1
Affiliations

Prevalence and severity of anaemia stratified by age and gender in rural India

Gerardo Alvarez-Uria et al. Anemia. 2014.

Abstract

Anaemia is a major public health problem in India. Although nearly three quarters of the Indian population live in rural areas, the epidemiology of anaemia in rural settings is not well known. We performed a retrospective observational study using routine clinical data from patients attending the out-patient clinics of a rural hospital in India from June 2011 to August 2014. The study included 73,795 determinations of haemoglobin. 49.5% of patients were female. The median haemoglobin concentration was 11.3 g/dL (interquartile range (IQR), 9.8-12.4) in females and 12.5 g/dL (IQR, 10.6-14.2) in males. Anaemia was present in the majority of children <10 years, women after puberty, and older adults. Children <5 years had the highest prevalence of anaemia, especially children aged 1-2 years. The high proportion of microcytic anaemia and the fact that gender differences were only seen after the menarche period in women suggest that iron deficiency was the main cause of anaemia. However, the prevalence of normocytic anaemia increased with age. The results of this study can be used by public health programmes to design target interventions aimed at reducing the huge burden of anaemia in India. Further studies are needed to clarify the aetiology of anaemia among older adults.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Median and interquartile range of haemoglobin concentration stratified by gender and calendar month.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Median and interquartile range of haemoglobin concentration stratified by gender and age.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Prevalence of mild, moderate, and severe anaemia by age in males and females.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Median and interquartile range of the mean corpuscular volume in patients with anaemia stratified by gender and age.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Prevalence of macrocytic, normocytic, and microcytic anaemia by age in males and females.
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References

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