Turkish Journal of
GERIATRICS

Akdeniz Ãœniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi, İç Hastalıkları Anabilim Dalı, Antalya. In this study, we aimed to find out the frequency and the morphological distribution of anemia in the elderly patients. 2100 old patients (age ≥ 65 years) who attended the outpatient clinics of Internal Medicine Department between January 2000 and December 2003, were included into the study. The history and physical examination of all patients were performed before hemogram. Anemia was defined with decreased hemoglobin concentrations (<13 g/dl for men and < 12 g/dl for women). Peripheral blood smears were examined in all patients with anemia (morphological evaluation of anemia were not done in 20 patients who have a story of transfusion or hematinic drug intake in last 3 months). The frequency of anemia was found to be 30.5 % (n=650) in our study population. The mean age was 68.5±8.1 years, 370 (56.9 %) of them were male and 280 (43.1%) were female. 283 patients (44.95 %) had microcytic anemia (MCV<80 fl), 278 patients (44.1%) had normocytic anemia (MCV:80-102 fl), 56 patients (8.9%) had macrocytic anemia (MCV≥103 fl), and 13 patients (2.1%) had dimorphic anemia. Finally, anemia is the most common problem in the elderly patients. Elderly patients with anemia requires extensive investigations. Keywords : Anemia, Elderly patients, Frequency, Morphological distribution