Iron deficiency linked with more hospitalizations among older adults

Iron deficiency (ID) in generally healthy older adults is associated with increased hospitalization rates but is not linked with hospital stays longer than 5 days, according to a study in which the authors concluded that “Efforts to minimize ID in older adults may improve overall health and optimize healthcare costs.”

In this secondary observational analysis of a randomized controlled trial, researchers examined ID at baseline in 2157 community-dwelling adults aged ≥70 years without major diseases at baseline to determine the number of hospitalizations and length of stay over a 3-year follow-up period.

Iron deficiency was noted in 2141 participants at baseline and associated with a 24% increased incidence rate of hospitalization, which was independent of anemia status at baseline. During the follow-up period, there were 1497 hospitalizations with an incidence rate of hospitalization of 0.26 per person-year.

Reference
de Godoi Rezende Costa Molino C, Woll L, Wieczorek M, et al; DO-HEALTH Research Group. Association between iron deficiency and hospitalization rate in community-dwelling older adults: A 3-year prospective observational study of DO-HEALTH. Am J Clin Nutr. 2023;117(1):12-21. doi: 10.1016/j.ajcnut.2022.11.001. Epub 2022 Dec 15. PMID: 36789930.