الفهرس 
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Abstract
Anemia is a pathological condition in which there is a decrease in red blood cell mass or a decrease in the amount of hemoglobin compared with that in age matched controls.
The WHO definition of anemia is being a hemoglobin (Hb) concentration less than 12 g/dL in women and 13 g/dL in men.
The present study was carried out in the Clinical Pathology Department and Hematology Unit Internal Medicine Department, Alexandria Main University Hospital (AMUH). It included 246 apparently healthy subjects above 65 years old, with male to female allocation ratio 1: 1.
Studied subjects included residents in rural and urban areas, also subjects of both high and low socioeconomic standards.
This study aims at screening of the elderly population in Egypt for the prevalence of anemia and investigating the most common causes of this anemia.
Based on full history taking, complete clinical examination and laboratory investigations including hematological tests and different chemical test as kidney function tests and liver function tests. Subjects were divided into 3 broad groups: hypochromic microcytic anemia (35 subjects), normocytic normochromic anemia (56 subjects) and macrocytic anemia (6 subjects).
Based on the statistical analysis of the gathered data, our results showed that anemia is more prevalent in females, in subjects above 70 years, in low socioeconomic classes and in rural residents.
Anemia is more common among subjects older than 70 years old compared to those below 70 due to decrease bone marrow cellularity with age. Anemia is significantly higher in female group because women usually tend to be negligent about their diet, they care for the nutritional needs for the whole family but are carless about their own nutrition, recurrent UTI in females and vaginal blood loss from bleeding fibroids.
The higher prevalence of anemia in rural areas was due to the poorly equipped health care facilities, less efficient health awareness programs, far distance from health care facilities and un efficient or absence of clean tap water or sewage system. Anemia is significantly higher in low socioeconomic classes due to poor quality of life in their homes regarding aeration and lack exposure to sunlight which leads to spread of infectious diseases and respiratory tract infections. Also due to non compliance with the medications of chronic diseases.
Nutritional deficiencies and blood loss anemia represents approximately one third of anemic cases in older adults and is attributed to iron deficiency due to decreased intake or blood loss from gastro intestinal tract lesion.