Abstract
Background
Anemia and gastroenteritis are major public health concerns, particularly among the elderly population. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of anemia and its association with gastroenteritis among older adults in India using data from the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI). The study was planned to comprehensively understand the epidemiology, risk factors, and potential interventions for anemia and gastroenteritis among the elderly Indian population.
Methods
A secondary analysis was performed on data from the first wave of Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI) conducted in 2017-2018, involving 72,250 adults aged 45 and above. The prevalence of anemia was calculated, and logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the association between anemia and self-reported gastroenteritis/diarrhea, adjusting for sociodemographic and health-related factors.
Results
The prevalence of anemia in the study population was 3.89% (2,586 cases). Women (69.1%), rural residents (74.0%), and those with lower educational attainment were disproportionately affected by anemia. Individuals with anemia had a five-fold increased likelihood of experiencing gastroenteritis (adjusted OR = 5.0, 95% CI: 3.44-7.42) compared to non-anemic individuals, even after adjusting for potential confounders.
Conclusion
The study highlights the substantial burden of anemia among the aging population in India and its strong association with the occurrence of gastroenteritis. Targeted interventions addressing anemia and its underlying determinants, particularly in vulnerable populations, and strategies for the prevention and management of gastroenteritis are warranted to improve the well-being and quality of life of India's elderly population.
Keywords:
anemia, gastroenteritis, elderly, LASI, public health, aging, IndiaReferences
Longitudinal Aging Study in India (LASI). Available from: https://lasi-india.org/. Accessed 10 April, 2024.
International Institute for Population Sciences. Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI). Available from https://www.iipsindia.ac.in/lasi. Accessed 10 April, 2024.
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Longitudinal Aging Study in India (LASI). Available from: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/india-center/longitudinal-aging-study-in-india-lasi/. Accessed 10 April, 2024.
Daniel RA, Ahamed F, Mandal S, Lognathan V, Ghosh T, Gomathi et al. Prevalence of Anemia Among the Elderly in India: Evidence From a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Cross-Sectional Studies. Cureus. 2023;15(7):e42333
Chaparro CM, Suchdev PS. Anemia epidemiology, pathophysiology, and etiology in low- and middle-income countries. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2019;1450(1):15-31.
Cappellini MD, Musallam KM, Taher AT. Iron deficiency anaemia revisited. J Intern Med. 2020;287(2):153-70.
Benson AE, Shatzel JJ, Ryan KS, Hedges MA, Martens K, Aslan JE, et al. The incidence, complications, and treatment of iron deficiency in pregnancy. Eur J Haematol. 2022;109(6):633-642.
Sokic-Milutinovic A, Pavlovic-Markovic A, Tomasevic RS, Lukic S. Diarrhea as a Clinical Challenge: General Practitioner Approach. Dig Dis. 2022;40(3):282-289.
Dharanendra S, Gillet AS, Geer B, Hall MA, Hwang PR. Watery Diarrhea Is Not Always Clostridioides difficile: A Case Report of Aeromonas hydrophila Gastroenteritis. Cureus. 2024;16(1):e51940.
Posovszky C, Buderus S, Classen M, Lawrenz B, Keller KM, Koletzko S. Acute Infectious Gastroenteritis in Infancy and Childhood. Dtsch Arztebl Int. 2020;117(37):615-24.
Mubemba B, Mburu MM, Changula K, Muleya W, Moonga LC, Chambaro HM, et al. Current knowledge of vector-borne zoonotic pathogens in Zambia: A clarion call to scaling-up “One Health” research in the wake of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2022;16(2): e0010193.
DeWeerdt S. Uneven-attention-hampers-drive-to-control-infectious-diseases. Springer Nature; 2021.
Shivale SJ, Madamanchi D, Akhila BS, Vajjala SM. Comprehensive Approach to Address Anaemia: Beyond Conventional Methods. Natl J Community Med. 2023 Nov;14(11):781-2.
Vadakattu SS, Ponday LR, Nimmathota A, Nagalla B, Kondru DS, Undrajavarapu P, et al. Prevalence of nutritional anemia and hyperhomocysteinemia in urban elderly. Indian J Clin Biochem. 2019;34:330-5.
Gupta A, Ramakrishnan L, Pandey RM, Sati HC, Khandelwal R, Khenduja P, et al. Risk factors of anemia amongst elderly population living at high-altitude region of India. J Family Med Prim Care. 2020;9(2):673-82.
Pathania A, Haldar P, Kant S, Gupta SK, Pandav CS, Bachani D. Prevalence of anemia among elderly persons residing in old age homes in national capital territory, Delhi, India. Indian J Public Health. 2019;63(4):288-92.
Kumar P, Srivastava S, Banerjee A, Banerjee S. Prevalence and predictors of water-borne diseases among elderly people in India: evidence from Longitudinal Ageing Study in India, 2017–18. BMC public health. 2022;22(1):993.
Chaubal A, Pandey V, Choksi D, Poddar P, Ingle M, Phadke A, et al. Anemia in patients with ulcerative colitis in remission: A study from western India. Indian J Gastroenterol. 2017;36:361-5.
Ecollan M, Guerrisi C, Souty C, Rossignol L, Turbelin C, Hanslik T, et al. Determinants and risk factors of gastroenteritis in the general population, a web-based cohort between 2014 and 2017 in France. BMC Public Health. 2020;20:1-1.
Cardemil CV, Balachandran N, Kambhampati A, Grytdal S, Dahl RM, Rodriguez-Barradas MC, et al. Incidence, Etiology, and Severity of Acute Gastroenteritis Among Prospectively Enrolled Patients in 4 Veterans Affairs Hospitals and Outpatient Centers, 2016-2018. Clin Infect Dis. 2021;73(9):e2729-e2738.
Kadla SA, Shah NA, Bindroo MA, Khan BA, Farooq A, Yousf W, et al. Evaluation of iron deficiency anaemia for gastrointestinal causes in patients without GI symptoms in high prevalent GI malignancy zones. Arab J Gastroenterol. 2016;17(2):67-72.
Antunes CV, Hallack Neto AE, Nascimento CR, Chebli LA, Moutinho IL, Pinheiro BD, et al. Anemia in inflammatory bowel disease outpatients: prevalence, risk factors, and etiology. Biomed Res Int. 2015;2015:728925.
LASI India report; 2020. Available from: https://lasi-india.org/. Accessed 10 April, 2024.
World Health Organization (WHO). Haemoglobin concentrations for the diagnosis of anaemia and assessment of severity. 2011.
Khan JR, Awan N, Misu F. Determinants of anemia among 6–59 months aged children in Bangladesh: evidence from nationally representative data. BMC Pediatrics. 2016;16(1):3.
Oppenheimer SJ. Iron and its relation to immunity and infectious disease. J Nutr. 2001;131(2s-2):616S-633S.
World Health Organization (WHO). Worldwide prevalence of anaemia 1993–2005 WHO Global Database on Anaemia; 2008.
Jayamanna U, Jayaweera JAA. Childhood Anemia and Risk for Acute Respiratory Infection, Gastroenteritis, and Urinary Tract Infection: A Systematic Review. J Pediatr Infect Dis. 2022;18.
Stevens GA, Finucane MM, De-Regil LM, Paciorek CJ, Flaxman SR, Branca F, et al. Global, regional, and national trends in haemoglobin concentration and prevalence of total and severe anaemia in children and pregnant and non-pregnant women for 1995-2011: a systematic analysis of population-representative data. Lancet Glob Health. 2013;1(1):e16-25.
Abbaspour N, Hurrell R, Kelishadi R. Review on iron and its importance for human health. J Res Med Sci. 2014;19(2):164-74.
Ghose B, Tang S, Yaya S, Feng Z. Association between food insecurity and anemia among women of reproductive age. PeerJ. 2016;4:e1945.
Bentley ME, Griffiths PL. The burden of anemia among women in India. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2003;57(1):52-60.
Kassebaum NJ, Jasrasaria R, Naghavi M, Wulf SK, Johns N, Lozano R, et al. A systematic analysis of global anemia burden from 1990 to 2010. Blood. 2014;123(5):615-24.
Kumar SB, Arnipalli SR, Mehta P, Carrau S, Ziouzenkova O. Iron Deficiency Anemia: Efficacy and Limitations of Nutritional and Comprehensive Mitigation Strategies. Nutrients. 2022;14(14).
Gopalkrishna V, Joshi MS, Chavan NA, Shinde MS, Walimbe AM, Sawant PM, et al. Prevalence and genetic diversity of gastroenteritis viruses in hospitalized children < 5 years of age in Maharashtra state, Western India, 2017‐2019. J Med Virol. 2021;93(8):4805-4816.
Paul P. Socio-demographic and environmental factors associated with diarrhoeal disease among children under five in India. BMC Public Health. 2020;20(1):1886.
Azemi M, Berisha M, Ismaili-Jaha V, Kolgeci S, Avdiu M, Jakupi X, et al. Socio-demographic, Clinical and Laboratory Features of Rotavirus Gastroenteritis in Children Treated in Pediatric Clinic. Mater Sociomed. 2013;25(1):9-13.
Deshmukh PR, Dongre AR, Sinha N, Garg BS. Acute childhood morbidities in rural Wardha: Some epidemiological correlates and health care seeking. Indian J Med Sci. 2009;63:345-54.
Levy A, Fraser D, Rosen SD, Dagan R, Deckelbaum RJ, Coles C, et al. Anemia as a risk factor for infectious diseases in infants and toddlers: Results from a prospective study. Eur J Epidemiol. 2005;20:277-84.
How to Cite
License
Copyright (c) 2024 AB Amaljith, Debankur Dey, Mirza Adil Beig, Mithun Mohan George , Dipanshu Aggarwal , Pavan Kumar , Sai Mahesh Vajjala, Aditi Pal, Tanya Gupta, Suneeti Kanyari S , Vineeth Rajagopal
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Copyright© by the author(s). Published by the Evidence Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
Most read articles by the same author(s)
- Diptismita Jena, Prafulla Kumar Swain, Nandhni Chiruganam Gandhi, Visweswara Rao Guthi, Sree Sudha T Y, Priyadharshini. P, Sai Sreevalli Sreepada, Carlos Quispe- Vicuña, Mirza Adil Beig, Shilpa DM, Cancer burden and trends across India (1990-2021): insights from the Global Burden of Disease study , The Evidence: Vol. 2 No. 3 (2024): JUL - SEP
- Amaljith A B, Roy Rillera Marzo, Sarath Lekamwasam, Adnan Kisa, Ashish Behera, Preetha S, Praveen Bharath Saravanan, Pankaj B Shah, Subarna Sinha Mahapatra, Gopi Kumbha, Vishaal P, Swathika N. Rama , Noor ul Baddar, Denny Mathew John, Vineeth Rajagopal, Prevalence of fall and its associated factors among elderly population in India: Evidence from the Longitudinal Aging Study of India (LASI) , The Evidence: Vol. 2 No. 2 (2024): APR - JUN
- Ganesh Bushi, Sai Mahesh Vajjala, Furqan B. Irfan, Dipanshu Aggarwal, Safayet Jamil, Drishti Sagar, Alwin Kurian Raju, Mithun Mohan George, Aditi Pal, Preetha S, Ali A. Rabaan, Muhammed Shabil, One health implications of bovine leukemia virus seroprevalence: a global systematic review and meta-analysis , The Evidence: Vol. 2 No. 2 (2024): APR - JUN
- Vinay Suresh, Jomon De Joseph, Goudicherla Manasa, Hariharan Seshadri , Priyanka Singla, Vineeth Rajagopal, Advancements of artificial intelligence-driven approaches in the use of stem cell therapy in diseases or disorders: clinical applications and ethical issues , The Evidence: Vol. 2 No. 3 (2024): JUL - SEP
- Vansh Maheshwari, Parul Chawla Gupta, Hashem Abu Serhan, Dipanshu Aggarwal, Ram Sumit, Gopi Kumbha, Neha Bajwa, Prevalence and determinants of vision problems among community-dwelling older adults with diabetes: evidence from longitudinal ageing study in India (2017-18) , The Evidence: Vol. 2 No. 2 (2024): APR - JUN
- Yashendra Sethi, Vineeth Rajagopal, Anil Kumar Choudhary, Sourabh Agstam, Neelam Dahiya, Why are young people dying of heart attacks these days: what is the evidence? , The Evidence: Vol. 1 No. 1 (2023): OCT - DEC
- Neha Bajwa, Vighnesh Devulapalli, Mahendra Pratap Singh, Kumbha Gopi, Sanobar Shariff, Pavan Kumar, Carlos Quispe-Vicuña, Microneedle technology: a gateway to transformative healthcare solutions , The Evidence: Vol. 2 No. 3 (2024): JUL - SEP