Prevalence of Anemia in Patients with COPD and its Impact on Quality of Life

Background: COPD is a common preventable and treatable disease with high global prevalence. Common comorbidities that contribute to the increased risk associated with morbidity and mortality in COPD patients include cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, lung cancer, metabolic syndrome, osteoporosis, gastroesophageal reflux and anemia. The prevalence of anemia in patients with COPD varies from 7.5% to 33%. Objectives: To assess the prevalence of anemia in patients with COPD and its impact on quality of life. Design and Setting: A University hospital based cross sectional study in Lucknow, India. Methods: Fifty Seven patients (54 males and 3 females) with spirometry documented COPD were evaluated for frequency of anemia. Results: A total of 15 cases of anemia were detected giving a frequency of 26.32%. All of these anemic patients were males. Normocytic normochromic type of anemia was present in 13 (86.66%) patients while the rest had microcytic hypochromic type of anemia. Majority of patients were in GOLD stage III and IV with a mean FEV1 32.53 percent of the predicted in anemic COPD patients. The various factors significantly associated with anemia in our study were number of exacerbations of COPD leading to hospitalization and quality of life. Conclusion: Anemia occurs frequently in patients of COPD and is associated with poor quality of life and increased morbidity in the form of number of exacerbations and hospital admissions. Correcting anemia in these patients may improve their clinical outcome.