Prevalence of anemia of varying severity, geographic variations, and association with metabolic factors among women of reproductive age in China: a nationwide, population-based study

Abstract

To investigate the epidemiological characteristics of anemia of varying severity among women of reproductive age, we conducted a nationwide, cross-sectional study between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2019, including 4 184 547 nonpregnant women aged 18–49 years from all 31 provinces in the mainland of China. Anemia was defined as having hemoglobin concentration < 120.0 g/L and categorized as mild, moderate, and severe. Multivariate logistic models with cluster effect were used to explore the association of anemia and metabolic risk factors. The standardized prevalence of anemia and moderate and worse anemia among women of reproductive age in China was 15.8% (95% CI 15.1%–16.6%) and 6.6% (6.3%–7.0%), respectively. The prevalence of anemia and the proportion of moderate and worse anemia significantly increased with age. We also observed great geographic variations in the prevalence of anemia, with a high likelihood in south, central, and northwest China. Moderate and/or severe anemia was positively associated with overweight and obesity, diabetes, and impaired kidney function. In conclusion, anemia remains a significant challenge for women of reproductive age in China. Geographic variations and metabolic risk factors should be considered in the comprehensive and targeting strategy for anemia reduction.

Keywords

anemia / prevalence / women of reproductive age / metabolic factor / body mass index / China

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Acknowledgements

We thank all staff from the Meinian Healthcare Group system for their hard work in data collection and quality control. This study was supported by grants from the CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (No. 2022-I2M-2-001). The funder had no role in the study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11684-024-1070-x and is accessible for authorized users.

Compliance with ethics guidelines

Conflict of interest Heling Bao, Yuanyuan Huang, Yi Sun, Yunli Chen, Yan Luo, Liping Yan, Sailimai Man, Canqing Yu, Jun Lv, Meili Ge, Linhong Wang, Xiaoxi Liu, Hui Liu, Bo Wang, and Liming Li declare that they have no competing interests.

The study was approved by the Peking University Institution Review Board (IRB-0000152-19077), and individual informed consent was waived because anonymous data were used.

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