ArticleGerontology2024
Anemia, Iron Deficiency, and Cause-Specific Mortality: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study.
Article in Gerontology, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The Association of Food Insecurity and Risk of Mortality: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Large-Scale Cohorts.Nutrients · 2025Pooled it
- Anaemia Among Women in Lesotho: Findings From 2023 to 2024 Demographic and Health Survey.Health science reports · 2026Article
- Comorbidities and Concomitant Medications in Middle-Aged Japanese People According to the Charlson Comorbidity Index and Age: Results of the NDB-K7Ps-Study-3.Epidemiologia (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Anemia in elderly patients admitted in the geriatric and medicine wards of S. S. hospital: A cross-sectional study.Journal of family medicine and primary care · 2026Article
- Hemoglobin predicts mortality risk in geriatric patients with dysphagia: a Japanese retrospective cohort study.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
- A Predictive Model for Anemia and Coronary Heart Disease Based on Bidirectional Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization and Machine Learning.Endocrine, metabolic & immune disorders drug targets · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
introductionAnemia is a risk factor for all-cause mortality in older adults. Iron deficiency may also be associated with adverse outcomes, independent of its role in causing anemia. This study tested the hypotheses that anemia, and low ferritin among non-anemic participants, were associated with all-cause and cause-specific mortality in a community-based cohort of older adults.
methodsFasting blood was obtained from 5,070 ARIC participants (median age: 75 years) in 2011-2013. Anemia was defined by hemoglobin concentrations <12 g/dL in women and <13 g/dL in men. We classified 4,020 non-anemic participants by quartiles of plasma ferritin, measured by the SomaScan proteomics platform. Cox proportional hazards regression was used. Mortality was ascertained via phone calls with proxies as part of twice-yearly cohort follow-up, surveillance of local hospital discharge indexes, state death records, and linkage to the National Death Index.
resultsOf the total participants, 21% had anemia at baseline. Over a median of 7.5 years, there were 1,147 deaths, including 357 due to cardiovascular disease (CVD), 302 to cancer, and 132 to respiratory disease. Compared to those with normal hemoglobin, participants with anemia had a higher risk of all-cause mortality (hazard ratio 1.81 [95% CI: 1.60-2.06]), and mortality due to CVD (1.77 [1.41-2.22]), cancer (1.81 [1.41-2.33]), and respiratory disease (1.72 [1.18-2.52]) in demographics-adjusted models. In fully adjusted models, associations with all-cause mortality (1.37 [1.19-1.58]) and cause-specific mortality were attenuated. In non-anemic participants, lower ferritin levels were not associated with all-cause or cause-specific mortality, though associations were observed among participants with lesser evidence of inflammation (CRP below the median level of 1.9 mg/L) and for cancer mortality in men only.
conclusionAnemia is common among older adults and is associated with all-cause mortality, as well as mortality due to CVD, cancer, and respiratory disease. Our results do not provide evidence that iron deficiency, independent of anemia, is associated with mortality in this population.
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