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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Anemia in old age is associated with increased mortality and hospitalization | | Author(s) | Brenda W J H Penninx, Marco Pahor, Richard C Woodman |
| Journal title | Journals of Gerontology: Series A, Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, vol 61A, no 5, May 2006 |
| Pages | pp 474-479 |
| Source | http://www.geron.org |
| Keywords | Diseases of the blood ; Admission [hospitals] ; Death rate [statistics] ; Longitudinal surveys ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | Anaemia is common in old age and has been shown to affect older people's physical function. In this study, anaemia is defined according to World Health Organization (WHO) criteria as a haemoglobin concentration below 12g/dL for women and below 13 g/dL for men. Data are from 3607 people aged 71+ participating in the Established Populations for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly (EPESE) between 1981 and 1983 from East Boston, Massachusetts, New Haven, Connecticut, and Iowa. Data on subsequent mortality and hospital admissions over 4 years were obtained from death records and the Medicare database. Anaemia was present in 451 of the participants (12.5%). During the follow-up period, those with anaemia were more likely to die than were non-anaemic persons (37% vs 22.1%). Also, anaemic people were more often admitted to hospital (65.9% vs 54.6%) and spent more days in hospital (25 days vs 13.7). Anaemia significantly predicted subsequent mortality and admission to hospital. After excluding those with prevalent diseases at baseline, anaemia remained significantly associated with increased risk of mortality and hospitalisation. A higher level of haemoglobin was significantly associated with lower risk of mortality. The importance of clinical awareness of anaemia is demonstrated, even if a person is without apparent clinical disease. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-070504235 A |
| Classmark | CQT: LD:QKH: S5: 3J: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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