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Anemia and activities of daily living in the Korean urban elderly population: Results from the Korean Longitudinal Study on Health and Aging (KLoSHA)

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Abstract

This study was planned to investigate the prevalence and risk factors of anemia and its impact on health-related quality of life and activities of daily living (ADL) in elderly Koreans. Of the 1,118 randomly sampled elderly Koreans aged 65 years or older living in Seongnam, Korea, on Aug. 1, 2005, we estimated the prevalence of anemia from 695 responders. We investigated the risk factors of anemia using a merged sample of this random sample and 270 volunteers enrolled from Seongnam residents aged 85 years or older. We diagnosed anemia according to the World Health Organization criteria. The estimated age- and gender-standardized prevalence of anemia was 8.33 % for the overall random sample (95 % confidence intervals (CI) 6.28–10.39), 10.58 % in men (95 % CI 7.09–14.07), and 6.85 % in women (95 % CI 4.37–9.34). The identified risk factors were age ≥80 years, male, iron deficiency, history of stroke, renal dysfunction, and metabolic syndrome. Anemia was associated with impairment in physical functioning (p = 0.031) and instrumental ADL (p < 0.001). This is the first report about anemia’s prevalence in community-dwelling Korean elders, adjusted and standardized according to the city’s and nation’s population. Timely diagnosis of anemia and correction of its treatable cause may improve QOL and ADL in elderly individuals.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by an Independent Research Grant (IRG) from Pfizer Global Pharmaceuticals (Grant No. 06-05-039), a grant from the Korean Health Technology R&D Project, Ministry for Health, Welfare, & Family Affairs, Republic of Korea (Grant No. A092077), and a grant from Seoul National University Bundang Hospital Research Fund (Grant No. 11-2009-002).

Conflict of interest

The authors report no potential conflicts of interest. None of the sponsors had any role in the study design, methods, analyses, and interpretation, or in preparation of the manuscript and the decision to submit it for publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seongnam, South Korea

    Soo-Mee Bang, Jeong-Ok Lee, Yu Jung Kim, Keun-Wook Lee, Soo Lim, Jee Hyun Kim, Young Joo Park, Ho Jun Chin, Hak-Chul Jang & Jong Seok Lee

  2. Department of Neuropsychiatry, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seoul National University College of Medicine, 166 Gumi-ro, Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, 463-707, South Korea

    Ki Woong Kim

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  1. Soo-Mee Bang
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  2. Jeong-Ok Lee
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  3. Yu Jung Kim
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  4. Keun-Wook Lee
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  5. Soo Lim
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  10. Hak-Chul Jang
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  11. Jong Seok Lee
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ki Woong Kim.

Additional information

Soo-Mee Bang and Jeong-Ok Lee contributed equally to this work.

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Bang, SM., Lee, JO., Kim, Y.J. et al. Anemia and activities of daily living in the Korean urban elderly population: Results from the Korean Longitudinal Study on Health and Aging (KLoSHA). Ann Hematol 92, 59–65 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00277-012-1563-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00277-012-1563-6

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