Nutritional status: haematology and albumin. Euronut SENECA investigators

In the context of the Euronut SENECA study of nutrition and the elderly, performed in 19 towns situated in 12 European countries, blood haemoglobin and haematocrit, and serum albumin were measured in a large sample of 70-75-year-old subjects. The mean haemoglobin (Hb) values for the different towns ranged from 144 g l-1 to 157 g l-1 for men and from 131 g l-1 to 150 g l-1 for women. The town haematocrit (Hct) means ranged from 43.0% to 48.9% for men and from 39.7% to 46.4% for women. No clear geographical pattern emerged for either Hb or Hct. The 95% ranges (2.5-97.5 percentile intervals) for Hb and Hct for all towns combined (without any claim of being representative of Europe) were very similar to those reported in the NHANES II study of the USA. Prevalences of anaemia, using the WHO definition (Hb less than 130 g l-1 for men and Hb less than 120 g l-1 for women) were 5.2% for men and 5.7% for women. The town mean serum albumins ranged from 40.3 g l-1 to 44.3 g l-1 for men and from 40.3 g l-1 to 43.2 g l-1 for women. No clear geographical pattern emerged. Mean values were somewhat lower than for younger adults and comparable to other published data. Most albumin values were in the normal range, with only 2.0% of both men and women having levels below 35 g l-1 and only 0.4% of men and no women having levels below 30 g l-1. These results show that these 70-75-year-old subjects who chose to participate in the study were in relatively good health as judged from their haemoglobin, haematocrit and serum albumin levels.