Study of the Prevalence of Iron Deficiency in Elderly Patient in Hospital Environment

Iron deficiency (MD) is defined by insufficient tissue iron stores. Since iron is essential for the synthesis of hemoglobin, when the iron deficiency no longer makes it possible to maintain a sufficient level of erythropoiesis, anemia appears: it is the ultimate stage of iron deficiency.

Anemia is the most common haematological pathology encountered in geriatric practice. Its prevalence, in population generally ambulatory, is between 10 and 15% after the age of 65 and is greater than 20% beyond the age of 85.

Anemia should never be neglected in an elderly subject because it is associated with an increase in mortality, but also with a increased morbidity in terms of complications heart disease, cognitive decline, frailty, hospitalizations, and impairment of quality of life. About a third of anemias elderly person is attributable to a deficiency in vitamin B9 or B12 or an iron deficiency.

Apart from anemia, iron deficiency is common and constitutes a factor of poor prognosis in diseases chronic such as heart failure, kidney failure chronic or cancer, all pathologies very frequently found in the elderly. It is the origin of the deterioration in the general condition of patients, their re-hospitalization or even the progression of their pathology.

In this context where elderly patients also present a certain number of comorbidities including the pathologies mentioned previously, it is important to better diagnose the deficiency martial in the elderly patient.