BETHESDA, MD — July 9, 2002 —
“Mild anemia in elderly women has often been dismissed as ‘innocent’, but it might be a significant health problem.” – Paulo H.M. Chaves, M.D., Ph.D. The amount of oxygen-carrying hemoglobin circulating in the blood of older women could have an impact on the risk for mobility problems, Johns Hopkins physicians have found.
Hemoglobin levels of 12 grams per deciliter to 16 grams per deciliter have long been considered normal by physicians, but a Hopkins study of more than 600 women in their 70s indicates that at a “low-normal” value of 12 g/dL, these women were as much as 1.5 times as likely to have difficulty performing daily tasks.
The report is published in the July issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. “The 12 g/dL criteria widely used by physicians to define anemia in older women needs serious scrutiny,” says Paulo H.M. Chaves, M.D., Ph.D., lead author of the study and an assistant professor of medicine at Hopkins. “Mild anemia in elderly women has often been dismissed as ‘innocent’, but it might be a significant health problem.”
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