الفهرس 
Definition of anaemiaOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Thanks to the im provement in the medical field, health awareness and medical Care, the percentage
of elderly people has increased so we have to shed light on all the health y sides includi n g one
of the most important things which affects the quality of l i fe, that is anaem ia.
The aim of th i s wok was to study the prevalence of anaem ia and try to find some underlying
causes and risk factors among a i>, Toup of Egyptian elderly.
The study included 120 subjects (> 60 yeas old)
randoml y selected from Kom n Al Nour Vill age (Dakahlia Governorate, 2000). A protested
questionnaire was used to collect data from the elderly as regard sociodemogrophic factors,
symptoms and signs suggestin g anaemia and its underlyi ng cause, feeding problems and
anthropometric assessment.
In addition, analysis of venous blood samples was done at Komn Al Nonr Hospital measuring the
haematological variables including HB concentration, RBCs count, MCV, MCHC, haemotocrite, TLC/DLC
and platelets count. The collected data were tabulated and statistically analyzed.
The study revea led these resu lts:
- The preval ence of anaem ia was 35. 83% accordi ng to WHO criteri a and 54. 16o/o according to
the geriatric criteria.
The frequency of anaemic subjects in the entire sample was insi gn i ficantly hi gher in females
(62. 3%) than in males (45.8%) accord ing to the geriatric criteria and significantly h
igher i n m ales (48. 8%) than i n females (26. 2%) accordi ng to WHO criteria.
- Prevalence was h igher in older elderly (::’.’.: 75 years) com pared to the other
you ng old categories (p> 0. 05)
- The mean val ues of all studied hematological variables were slightly lower in
females than males but does not reach the significant difference except for
HB concent ra t ion.
- There was only significant difference in the mean RBCs count between different studied age
groups.
- Sixty five percent of subjects had mild anaemia defined as being l Ogm /dL and above in HB
concentration.
- The frequency of microcytic anaemia, which is usually due to iron deficiency, in the entire
sample was significantly
h igher i n females (9.8%) than in males (6.8o/o) using W HO criteria wh i le the frequency of
111acrocy l i c anaem i a i n t he entire sample was (0%) in males and (3.3%) i n females. At the
same t ime the frequency of normocyt ic anaemia in the ent ire sample was significantl y higher in
males (39%) than females ( 13.1 %).
- Feeding problems among this group is common and it has a
bi g role i n the incidence of anaem i a among the elderly since 100% of the dependent patients
and 70% of the group wh ich needs some help are anaemic and there is also a sign ificant
difference i n the number of teeth among anaem i c and non-a naem i c .
- Smoking has a role in the evolution of anaemia in our study since 61% of cigarette smokers are
anaemic while only 30% of non-smokers are anaemic.
- chron ic l iver impairment, chronic renal failure, tuberculous
infection and epileptic subjects in our study have I 00% incidence of anaemia among subjects
having one or more of these chronic disorders.
- Among all the a.naemics no one had one dominating aetiology, 8 subjects had two probable
contributing aetiologies and 35 ones had more than two factors
indicat i ng t hat the cause of anaemia in the elderly is usuall y
111ul t i factor ia 1.
The elderl y form a vu lnerable group that needs a specia l care. The rapid growth of the geriat
ric population calls for new approaches, which are not traditionally noted on the medical problem
l ist especially that a low haemoglobi n concen trat ion was also asso.ciated with an increased
mortality risk i n older persons without a cl inical disease.