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When people think of debilitating and disabling conditions, it’s often migraines, low back pain, severe depression or age-related cognitive issues that come to mind. Rarely is anemia mentioned. In fact, anemia is the third largest cause of disability worldwide and afflicts nearly 2 billion people, carrying with it a whole host of health issues.
Individual suffering cannot be summed up with numbers. But understanding who is suffering from a given disease in different regions of the world, and why, is key to working toward more effective treatments and solutions.
Drawing on data from a massive international effort called the Global Burden of Disease study, researchers from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation produced a fine-tuned estimate of anemia rates and their underlying causes from 1990 to now, across more than 200 countries and regions. They also broke these numbers down by sex and age, level of severity and years of disability from anemia, ultimately finding that 1 in 4 people worldwide suffer from the condition. Women, adolescent girls and young children – as well as people in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia – bear a disproportionately large share of the burden.
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Anemia symptoms include shortness of breath, dizziness and fatigue.
Peter Dazeley/The Image Bank via Getty Images
William Gardner, University of Washington; Nicholas Kassebaum, University of Washington; Theresa A McHugh, University of Washington
Among young children, adolescents and adult women, anemia strikes 1 in 3 globally. Most cases are driven by dietary iron deficiency, red blood cell disorders and untreated tropical diseases.
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International
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The Conversation Quiz 🧠
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Here’s the first question of this week’s edition:
Entresto, Januvia, Eliquis and Farxiga were recently revealed as the names of what?
- A. Mark Zuckerberg's new quadruplets
- B. The first four hurricanes of 2024
- C. The latest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- D. Drugs that Medicare will try to get cheaply
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