ANAEMIA IN MEN

While anaemia among adolescent girls and boys, and women, particularly those of reproductive age has been studied extensively, anaemia in men has been largely ignored. In 2019, a paper published in The Lancet Global Health highlighted that nearly one in four men in the age group 15-54 years in India were anaemic.

Men are considered to have anaemia if haemoglobin concentration is less than 13.0g/dl. While iron deficiency is the main cause of anaemia, particularly in women, other causes of anaemia are deficiency in folate, vitamin B12, or vitamin A.

Now, a recent analysis of the fifth National Family Health Survey has shed light on anaemia among men living in rural areas. It found that the prevalence of anaemia was more in rural areas than in urban areas-one of five urban men are anaemia, while three out of every ten rural men are anaemia. The prevalence of anaemia was found to be higher among men who were underweight compared with men who were overweight. Men who consumed alcohol and smoked had “slightly higher” occurrences of anaemia, and older men were found to be more vulnerable.

These findings suggest “the need to recognize anaemia among men as a public health issue”. However, the latest study does not categorically state that anaemia in rural men is due to iron deficiency. “The problem is assigning a cause for anaemia among men. It is not likely to be iron deficiency as men do not lose iron every month through menstruation. In fact, men do not lose iron unless they are bleeding from somewhere, or have some abnormal haemoglobin like thalassemia or sickle cell anaemia.

Providing iron supplementation for men to tackle anaemia without knowing the cause may not be prudent.

Therefore the focus should be on increasing the diversity of foods to improve iron and vitamin intake in men, without chemicals.

Evaluate for the actual cause, before taking any big step.”

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