Anemia prevalence and its determinants in Brazilian institutionalized elderly.

OBJECTIVE

To estimate the prevalence of anemia and analyze the factors associated with anemia in elderly residents of long-term care institutions.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study was performed in male and female elderly volunteers selected in a two-stage random sampling from long-term care institutions in the city of Maringá, Brazil (2008). A diagnosis of anemia was based on the plasma hemoglobin concentration. The independent variables analyzed were gender, age, time of residence at an institution, body mass index, and serum iron and albumin concentrations. The association between anemia and the variables was assessed using the Poisson regression with robust variance in unadjusted and adjusted analyses, considering a complex sample and a significance level of 5%.

RESULTS

The sample included 124 adults older than 60 y residing in long-term care institutions (53.0% female). The prevalence of anemia was 29% and was not significantly associated with gender, serum iron concentration, time of residence at an institution, or body mass index. Conversely, hypoalbuminemia was considered a risk factor for anemia.

CONCLUSION

There is a high prevalence of anemia in the institutionalized elderly and hypoalbuminemia is a factor associated with this outcome. Interventions are necessary to promote improvements in the health and welfare of this population.