Fatigability as a Predictor of Subclinical and Clinical Anemia in Well‐Functioning Older Adults

Abstract

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Anemia is a common condition in older adults for which fatigue, the primary symptom, often goes unrecognized as individuals typically equilibrate their activity to avoid fatigue. Whether assessing fatigability (i.e., susceptibility to fatigue) facilitates identification of anemia is unknown. This study examines the association between fatigability and prevalent, incident, and persistent subclinical and clinical anemia in well-functioning older adults. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS: Longitudinal analysis of 905 well-functioning men and women aged 60 to 89 years and followed for 1 to 5 years from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging conducted at the National Institute on Aging,

Unexplained anemia of aging: Etiology, health consequences, and diagnostic criteria

“…The differences in these ranges (0.9 g/dl in women vs 1.9 g/dl in men) result in different therapeutic guidelines, potentially leading to undertreatment of older women with anemia. Recently, Simonsick et al 55 examined fatigue and anemia in a cohort of older men and women from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study on Aging. They reported that even subclinical anemia, defined as Hb of 12–12.9 g/dl for women and 13–13.9 g/dl for men, was associated with fatigability.…”