LONGITUDINAL CHANGES IN IRON AND PROTEIN STATUS OF ELDERLY EUROPEANS

Objective: Describe the iron and protein status of European elderly pe ople studied in 1993, together with changes observed in the previous f our years. Design: Two optional designs: (1) A transversal study from a randomly selected group of female and male elderly subjects born bet ween 1913 and 1914. (2) A longitudinal study including base-line measu rements in 1988/1989 in subjects born in 1913-1918, which were repeate d and extended in 1993. Setting: Nineteen towns in 12 European countri es participated in the baseline study in 1988/ 1989. Eleven centres in nine countries completed the follow-up study in 1993, and two new tow ns joined in 1993. The study included blood sampling for analysis of m arkers of nutritional status. Results: The mean haemoglobin (Hb) value s during the follow-up study for the different town populations ranged from 142 to 159 g/l for men and from 129 to 146 g/l for women. Preval ences of anaemia, based on WHO criteria (Hb <130g/l for men, and Hb <1 20g/l for women), amounted to 6.0% and 5.0% for men and women, respect ively, and were very close to the baseline prevalences of 5.6% and 5.5 %. A small decrease in Hb was observed after 4y in men. The mean haema tocrit (Hct) values for the different towns ranged from 42% to 48% in men and from 39% to 44% in women. For both sexes, a decrease in Hct wa s observed. White blood cell (WBC) counts and differentials were measu red in the follow-up study only. Mean WBC counts ranged from 5.8 x 10( 3)/mu l to 7.1 x 10(3)/mu l in men and from 5.6 x 10(3)/mu l to 6.7 x 10(3)/mu l in women. Mean lymphocyte counts ranged from 1.6 x 10(3)/mu l to 2.4 x 10(3)/mu l in men and from 1.7 x 10(3)/mu l to 2.3 x 10(3) /mu l in women and mean neutrophile counts ranged from 3.4 x 10(3)/mu l to 4.4 x 10(3)/mu l and from 3.1 x 10(3)/mu l to 4.0 x 10(3)/mu l, r espectively. The mean serum albumin values for the different towns var ied from 39.9 g/l to 43.2 g/l for men, and from 39.3 g/l to 42.4 g/l f or women, quite similar to the baseline study. In 25 subjects (2.2%) o nly serum albumin level was below 35 g/l and five subjects (0.4%) had a serum albumin level below 30 g/l. No albumin changes were detected f or either sex over the four year period. The group of survivors in the follow-up study had higher mean albumin concentrations at baseline th an the group of subjects who had died between the baseline and the fol low-up study. Conclusion: In this population of elderly subjects in th eir seventies, Hb, Hct and albumin showed little change over the 4 yea r follow-up period. The prevalence of anaemia and low serum albumin va lues was relatively low, which is indicative of a relatively good heal th.