Anemia and aging: an overview of clinical, diagnostic and biological issues

doi:10.1054/blre.2001.0146

Blood Reviews

Volume 15, Issue 1, March 2001, Pages 9-18

https://doi.org/10.1054/blre.2001.0146 Get rights and content

Abstract

Anemia, usually mild, is one of the more common problems of the aged, especially in men. Although the anemia is often multifactorial, the specific entities can be grouped into three broad categories: (a) anemias due to causes more common in the elderly; (b) anemias without special predilection for the elderly; (c) anemias of unknown cause. The major biological questions concern the third category, which accounts for 14–17% of the anemias, and whether senescence itself contributes to anemia. Current opinion favors a diminished erythropoietic reserve with aging, but the data are inconsistent and the mechanism has not been established. It may be that cytokine modulation of erythropoiesis is abnormal. Some findings in unexplained anemia bear partial resemblance to the changes of anemia of chronic disease, suggesting the possibility that subtle unidentified inflammatory responses of unknown origin may be operative in many elderly people. Of the anemias of known cause that are especially common in the elderly, anemia of chronic disease is an important entity but is sometimes obscured or overlooked and its diagnosis rests on crude tests. Cobalamin deficiency is very common also, although most cases are mild and not accompanied by anemia. Because the basic diagnostic approach to anemia is neither complex nor very invasive and anemia may be a marker of poor prognosis, attribution of anemia to senescence is not advisable until other causes have been ruled out.

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High MCH and MCHC in female participants and high MCHC in male participants were associated with high geriatric depression scale scores and risk of prevalent depression. In female participants, high- and middle-MCH tertile groups showed a 2.68- and 2.34-fold higher risk of incident depression than did the low tertile group. In male participants, the high-MCH tertile group showed a 1.79-fold higher risk of incident depression than did the low tertile group. In both sexes, the participants whose MCV changed to the high or middle tertile or remained in the high or middle tertile during the follow-up period, and whose MCH increased to the high tertile or remained in the high tertile, were at a higher risk of incident depression.
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Regular ArticleAnemia and aging: an overview of clinical, diagnostic and biological issues

Abstract

Baillière’s Clin Haematol

Hematol/Oncol Clin N Amer

Med Clin N Amer

Mech Ageing Dev

Exp Gerontol

Blood

Am J Med Sci

Blood

Am J Med Sci

Blood

Blood

Am J Med

Am J Clin Nutr

Am J Clin Nutr

Am J Clin Nutr

Am J Clin Nutr

Am J Med

Baillière’s Clin Haematol

Am J Gastroenterol

Am J Clin Nutr

Lancet

Am J Clin Nutr

Baillière’s Clin Haematol

Anemia and hemoglobin levels in older persons: relationship with age, gender, and health status

J Am Geriatr Soc

The prevalence of anaemia in the elderly

Practitioner

Anaemia in the elderly

Q J Med

Descriptive analysis of the prevalence of anemia in a randomly selected sample of elderly people living at home: some results of an Italian multicentric study

Aging Clin Exp Res

Incidence of anemia in older people: an epidemiologic study in a well defined population

J Am Geriatr Soc

Iron, folate and vitamin B12 status of an elderly South African population

Eur J Clin Nutr

The definition of anemia in older persons

JAMA

Treatment of anemia in the aged: a common problem and challenge

J Am Geriatr Soc

Anemia in institutionalized elderly patients

J Am Geriatr Soc

Anemia in elderly patients in a long term health care facility

Clin Res

Understanding the biology of aging: the key to prevention and therapy

J Am Geriatr Soc

Age-related changes in laboratory values used in the diagnosis of anemia and iron deficiency

Am J Clin Nutr

The anemia of senescence

Am J Hematol

Haematological laboratory findings in the elderly: influence of age and sex

Scand J Clin Lab Invest

Hematologic data of healthy very old people

JAMA

Decline of blood haemoglobin in the aged: a longitudinal study of an urban Swedish population from age 70 to 81

Br J Haematol

Anaemia in elderly patients

Incidence and causes of low haemoglobin concentration in a city general practice. Scand J Prim Health Care

Recognition and sequestration of young and old erythrocytes from young and elderly human donors: in vitro studies

J Lab Clin Med

Red cell volume and red cell survival in normal aged people

J Clin Pathol

Influence of mouse age and erythrocyte age on glutathione metabolism

Biochem J

The effect of donor and cell age on several characteristics of rat erythrocytes

Exp Hematol

Hematopoiesis and aging

III. Anemia and a blunted erythropoietic response to hemorrhage in aged mice. Am J Hematol

Regular Article
Anemia and aging: an overview of clinical, diagnostic and biological issues