Data needed to respond appropriately to anemia when it is a public health problem. Issue 1 (2nd July 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Williams, Anne M.; Addo, O. Yaw; Grosse, Scott D.; Kassebaum, Nicholas J.; Rankin, Zane; Ballesteros, Katherine E.; Olsen, Helen Elizabeth; Sharma, Andrea J.; Jefferds, Maria Elena; Mei, Zuguo
• Editors: Garcia‐Casal, Maria Nieves; Pasricha, Sant‐Rayn
• Is Part Of: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. Volume 1450:Issue 1(2019)
• Page Start: 268
• Page End: 280
• Publication Date: 2019-07-02
• Subjects: anemia -- iron deficiency anemia -- disability‐adjusted life years -- public health significance; Medical sciences -- Periodicals; Medicine -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals; 610
• DOI: 10.1111/nyas.14175
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0077-8923

Abstract

Abstract: Although the proportion of anemia amenable to change varies by population, the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria used to describe the public health severity of anemia are based on population prevalences. We describe the importance of measuring iron and other etiologic indicators to better understand what proportion of anemia could be responsive to interventions. We discuss the necessity of measuring inflammation to interpret iron biomarkers and documenting anemia of inflammation. Finally, we suggest assessing nonmodifiable genetic blood disorders associated with anemia. Using aggregated results from the Global Burden of Disease 2016, we compare population prevalence of anemia with years lived with disability (YLD) estimates, and the relative contributions of mild, moderate, and severe anemia to YLD. Anemia prevalences correlated with YLD and the relative proportion of moderate or severe anemia increased with anemia prevalence. However, individual‐level survey data revealed irregular patterns between anemia prevalence, the prevalence of moderate or severe anemia, and the prevalence of iron deficiency anemia (IDA). We conclude that although the WHO population prevalence criteria used to describe the public health severity of anemia are important for policymaking, etiologic‐specific metrics that take into account IDA and other causes will be necessary for effective anemia control policies. Abstract : The objectives of our study were twofold: (1) to examine population cutoffs for public health anemia severity using an economic metric, and (2) to describe the proportion of anemia amenable to intervention based on data that have been collected in population‐based surveys.