Maryam Tayefi
1 
, Mahmoud Ebrahimi
2 , Sara Saffar Soflaei
3, Sania Saljoughian
4, Najmeh Jaberi
1, Majid Khadem Rezaiyan
5, Farzad Rahmani
1, Mohsen Moohebati
1,2, Habibollah Esmaily
6,7, Seyed Mohammad Reza Parizadeh
1, Ali Reza Heidari-Bakavoli
1, Mohammad Safarian
1, Mohsen Nematy
1, Mahmoud Reza Azarpazhooh
2, Gordon A. Ferns
8, Majid Ghayour-Mobarhan
3,9* 1 Biochemistry of Nutrition Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
2 Cardiovascular Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
3 International UNESCO Center for Health-Related Basic Sciences and Human Nutrition, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
4 Department of Modern Sciences and Technologies, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
5 Department of Community Medicine and Public Health, School of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
6 Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Health, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
7 Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
8 Brighton & Sussex Medical School, Division of Medical Education, Falmer, Brighton, Sussex BN1 9PH, UK
9 Metabolic Syndrome Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
Abstract
Background: Anemia is a serious public health problem which may be associated with cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and brain damage. This survey aims to determine the prevalence of anemia and its association with demographic and biochemical factors and metabolic syndrome in a human sample derived from the MASHAD cohort study.
Methods: This survey was conducted on a sub-sample of 9847 individuals aged 35 to 65 as part of the MASHAD cohort study. Demographic characteristics and biochemical and anthropometrics indices were recorded. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20.
Results: Anemia was seen in 11.5% of the population. Anemia was significantly more prevalent in younger subject (P<0.001), females (P<0.001) and those with elevated body mass index (BMI) (P<0.001). Mean high-density lipoprotein (HDL) was higher in anemic participant (P=0.032). The incidence of anemia was significantly lower in smokers (P<0.001) and also participant with hypertension (HTN) (P<0.001), diabetes mellitus (DM) (P<0.001) and metabolic syndrome (MetS) (P<0.001). Mean FBG (P<0.001), TG (P<0.001), total cholesterol (P<0.001), LDL (P<0.001) and uric acid (P<0.001) were significantly lower in anemic subjects. Cholesterol, MetS, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), BMI, uric acid, diabetes mellitus and also TG remained significantly different after multivariate analysis between anemic and healthy participants.
Conclusion: The studied population had a lower prevalence of anemia compared to the previous WHO report for Iranians. Iron deficiency is recognized as the most important cause of anemia in Iran; however, further investigations will be need to confirm this pattern. We demonstrated that anemia is adversely associated with MetS and DM.