- Title
- Anemia and socioeconomic status among older adults in the Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE)
- Creator
- Greenblum, Georgia; DeLouize, Alicia M.; Kowal, Paul; Josh Snodgrass, J. Josh
- Relation
- Journal of Public Health and Emergency Vol. 6, Issue 25 September 2022, no. 28
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/jphe-22-29
- Publisher
- AME Publishing
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2022
- Description
- Background: Research on anemia has primarily focused on young children and pregnant women, yet anemia also raises considerable health concerns for older adults. Anemia can often be easily identified and treated, yet it affects large populations in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The older adult population is rapidly growing in LMICs; therefore, not only is this population understudied but the impact of anemia within this population will become a larger global issue. Documenting anemia prevalence and identifying associated factors in different countries will help public health officials more effectively target this disorder. Methods: Hemoglobin (Hb) levels and survey data from 14,848 adults 50 years and older in South Africa, China, and Mexico were obtained from Wave 1 of the World Health Organization (WHO)’s Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE). Data were analyzed to describe anemia prevalence and to test relationships among anemia, age, and socioeconomic status (SES) using binomial logistic regression. Results: For Mexico, China, and South Africa the prevalence of anemia in older adults was found to be 24%, 28%, and 91%, respectively. An association between lower wealth and higher prevalence of anemia was present for only one group: men in China [prevalence ratio (PR) =0.40; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.34–0.47; P=0.004]. Each year of age after 50 was associated with a 1% higher prevalence of anemia among women and men in Mexico and China. A large amount of variance (10% to 61%) in the prevalence of anemia was accounted for by community-level clustering. Conclusions: These results highlight the enormous global burden of anemia in older adults. As the population size of older adults increases within LMICs, the health burden and economic impact of anemia in older adults in these countries will also increase. Additionally, this research documents variation in factors that are associated with anemia by group, highlighting the importance of specifying treatment for age and gender.
- Subject
- epidemiology; aging; biomarkers; chronic disease; hemoglobin (Hb)
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1486883
- Identifier
- uon:51984
- Identifier
- ISSN:2520-0054
- Language
- eng
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