Prevalence in individuals aged 65 years or older is about 10% and increases with age to greater than 20% in persons over the age of 85 years or older.
One third of elderly with anemia have coincidental nutritional deficiencies of iron, B12 or folate deficiencies.
Utilization of iron indices: serum iron, total iron binding capacity, transference saturation and serum f2242itin, may have low sensitivity in diagnosing iron deficiency in elderly.
The serum transf2242ing receptor, elevated in iron deficiency or increased erythropoiesis, divided by the log of the serum f2242itin is a measure that is more sensitive than standard iron studies in diagnosing iron deficiency in the elderly.
Likely that decreased testosterone levels play some role in its development.