Inadequate diet ‘can cause anemia in postmenopausal women’
March 25th, 2011 - 3:57 pm ICT by ANIWashington, Mar 25 (ANI): A new study indicates that inadequate nutrition is linked to a greater risk of anemia in postmenopausal women.
“This study suggests that inadequate nutrient intakes are a significant risk factor for anemia in this population of older women and use of multivitamin/mineral supplements is not associated with lower rates of anemia,” reports lead investigator Cynthia A. Thomson, Associate Professor Nutritional Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson.
“Overall mortality is increased in relation to a diagnosis of anemia, and anemia, particularly iron deficiency, has been associated with reduced capacity for physical work and physical inactivity, injury related to falls and hospitalizations, making this an important health care concern in the aging.”
The authors also point out that there have been few studies of anemia and diet of independently living women in the past 20 years.
Using data from 72,833 women in the Observational Cohort of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI-OS), researchers found that deficiencies in more than a single nutrient were associated with a 21 percent greater risk of persistent anemia while three deficiencies resulted in a 44 percent increase in risk for persistent anemia.
Inadequate intakes of multiple anemia-associated nutrients were less frequent in non-Hispanic whites (7.4 percent) than other race/ethnic groups (15.2 percent of Native Americans/Alaskans, 14.6 percent Asian/Pacific Islanders, 15.3 percent of African Americans and 16.3 percent of Hispanic/Latinos reported all three nutrient inadequacies).
Women with anemia reported lower intakes of energy, protein, folate, vitamin B12, iron, vitamin C and red meat. In fact, inadequate intake of dietary iron, vitamin B12 and folate were each associated with approximately 10 percent to 20 percent elevated risk for incident anemia among WHI-OS study participants and the odds increased for persistent anemia to 21 percent. Age, body mass index and smoking were also associated with anemia.
The study has been published in the April 2011 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. (ANI)
- Eggs could cut heart defects during prenatal development - Jul 16, 2010
- Low vitamin C levels elevates heart failure risk - Nov 14, 2011
- Diet high in B-vitamins 'lowers heart risk' - Apr 16, 2010
- B vitamins in mother' diet cut kid's gut cancer risk - Jun 10, 2011
- Babies born to obese mums at risk for iron deficiency - May 01, 2011
- Higher levels of folate in RBCs linked to silenced tumor-suppressors - Dec 23, 2010
- Diet high in B-vitamins lowers heart risk - Apr 19, 2010
- Weight loss increases Vitamin D in obese women - May 26, 2011
- High intakes of folic acid may be linked to cancer - Dec 14, 2010
- Diet patterns may keep brain from shrinking - Dec 29, 2011
- Eating citrus fruit may lower stroke risk - Feb 24, 2012
- Vit D deficiency 'doubles stroke risk in whites, not in blacks' - Nov 15, 2010
- Teens who drink 100pct fruit juice have healthier diets - Mar 04, 2010
- Kids with H. pylori infection have lower levels of iron - Mar 08, 2011
- Drinking 100 pc fruit juice means higher intake of essential nutrients - Nov 10, 2010
Tags: anemia, asian pacific islanders, care concern, diagnosis of anemia, dietary iron, health initiative, important health, inadequacies, inadequate diet, inadequate intake, inadequate nutrition, iron deficiency, mineral supplements, nutrient intakes, nutritional sciences, physical inactivity, postmenopausal women, risk factor, study participants, university of arizona tucson