Prevalence of Anemia Among the Elderly in India: Evidence From a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Cross-Sectional Studies

Anemia is a leading cause of increased morbidity and mortality among the elderly population. In spite of numerous interventions and strategies rolled out to tackle the growing burden of anemia, lesser importance is being given to this age group. There is a lack of data on the national level burden of anemia among elderly persons (> 60 years) in India. We aimed at estimating the prevalence of anemia among elderly persons (> 60 years) in India by conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis. We searched PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, and IndMed, and included cross-sectional studies reporting data on the prevalence of anemia among elderly persons in India and used random effects model to estimate pooled point prevalence with 95% confidence interval (CI), To explore the heterogeneity further, we did sub-group analyses based on zonal divisions of India (region), rural or urban, study setting, method of hemoglobin estimation and sampling strategy. Out of 22 studies, one study was of high quality of bias, 11 of moderate, and 10 were of low quality of bias. The pooled estimate of anemia was 68.3% (95%CI: 60.7 to 75.9), I2 = 99.0%, and Q=2079.2 (p-value <0.001). The pooled prevalence of anemia among the elderly in India was found to be high and necessary actions need to be taken at the policy level to achieve "active and healthy ageing".