JAMDA
Volume 9, Issue 5 , Pages 354-359 , June 2008

Anemia: Its Impact on Hospitalizations and Length of Hospital Stay in Nursing Home and Community Older Adults

This work was presented, in part, at the Annual Meeting of the American Medical Directors Annual Meeting March 29-April 1, 2007: Dharmarajan TS, Pankratov A, Morris E, Jaspal P, Phillips S, Norkus EP. Does the presence of anemia and its severity in nursing home and community residents affect the rate of hospitalization and length of stay in hospital (LOS). J Am Med Dir Assoc 2007;8:B19 and at the Annual American Geriatrics Society Meeting May 2-May 6, 2007: Dharmarajan TS, Pankratov A, Qurashi S, Donepudi I, Morris E, Law G, Phillips S, Jaspal P, Norkus EP. Impact of chronic anemia on hospitalizations and healthcare costs in older adults from nursing homes (NH) and community (C). J Am Geriatr Soc 2007;55:S31.

  • T.S. Dharmarajan, MD, FACP, AGSF

      Affiliations

    • Department of Medicine, Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center, Bronx, NY
    • Division of Geriatrics, Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center, Bronx, NY
    • University Hospital of New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY.
    • Corresponding Author InformationAddress correspondence to T.S. Dharmarajan, MD, 31 Pheasant Run, Scarsdale, NY 10583l.
    • ,
  • Anna Pankratov, MD

      Affiliations

    • Division of Geriatrics, Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center, Bronx, NY
    • University Hospital of New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY.
    • ,
  • Evelyn Morris, MD

      Affiliations

    • Division of Geriatrics, Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center, Bronx, NY
    • University Hospital of New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY.
    • ,
  • Saima Qurashi, MD

      Affiliations

    • Division of Geriatrics, Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center, Bronx, NY
    • University Hospital of New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY.
    • ,
  • Gregory Law, MD

      Affiliations

    • Division of Geriatrics, Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center, Bronx, NY
    • University Hospital of New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY.
    • ,
  • Sunila Phillips, MD

      Affiliations

    • Division of Geriatrics, Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center, Bronx, NY
    • University Hospital of New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY.
    • ,
  • Praveen Jaspal, MD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Medicine, Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center, Bronx, NY
    • University Hospital of New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY.
    • ,
  • Indira Donepudi, MD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Medicine, Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center, Bronx, NY
    • University Hospital of New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY.
    • ,
  • Edward P. Norkus, PhD, FACN

      Affiliations

    • Department of Medical Research, Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center, Bronx, NY
    • University Hospital of New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY.

References 

  1. Beghe C, Wilson A, Ershler WB. Prevalence and outcomes of anemia in geriatrics: A systematic review of literature. Am J Med. 2004;116:3S–10S
  2. Robinson B, Artz AS, Culleton B, et al. Prevalence of anemia in the nursing home: Contribution of chronic kidney disease. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2007;55:1566–1570
  3. Guralnik JM, Eisenstaedt RS, Ferrucci L, et al. Prevalence of anemia in persons 65 years and older in the United States: Evidence for a high rate of unexplained anemia. Blood. 2004;104:2263–2268
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  5. Balducci L. Epidemiology of anemia in the elderly: Information on diagnostic evaluation. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2003;51:S2–S9
  6. Dharmarajan TS, Pais W, Norkus EP. Does anemia matter? (Anemia, morbidity and mortality in older adults: Need for greater recognition). Geriatrics. 2005;60:22–29
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  14. Fonarow GC. Epidemiology and risk stratification in acute heart failure. Am Heart J. 2008;155:200–207
  15. Genovesi S, Vincenti A, Rossi E, et al. Atrial fibrillation and morbidity and mortality in a cohort of long-term hemodialysis patients. Am J Kidney Dis. 2008;51:255–262
  16. Nordyke R, Kim J, Goldberg G, et al. Impact of anemia on hospitalization time, charges and mortality in patients with heart failure. Value Health. 2004;7(4):464–471
  17. Culleton BF, Manns BJ, Zhang J, et al. Impact of anemia on hospitalization and mortality in older adults. Blood. 2006;107:3841–3846
  18. Ofsthun N, Labrecque J, Lacson E, et al. The effects of higher hemoglobin levels on mortality and hospitalization in hemodialysis patients. Kidney Intl. 2003;63:1908–1914
  19. Izaks GJ, Westendorp RGJ, Knook DL. The definition of anemia in older persons. JAMA. 1999;281:1714–1717
  20. Khusan H, Yip R, Schultink W. World Health Organization hemoglobin cut-off points for the detection of anemia are valid for an Indonesian population. J Nutr. 1999;129:669–674
  21. Robinson B. Cost of anemia in the elderly. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2003;51:S14–S17
  22. Thomas DR. Anemia: Its all about quality of life. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2007;8:80–82

 This study was internally funded as part of the Geriatric Medicine Fellowship program.

 The authors have no conflicts of interest pertaining to this article.

PII: S1525-8610(08)00100-X

doi: 10.1016/j.jamda.2008.02.008

JAMDA
Volume 9, Issue 5 , Pages 354-359 , June 2008

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