Implications of changes in WHO haemoglobin elevation adjustment guidelines on global, regional, and national anaemia burden, 1990-2023: a population-based modelling study - PubMed
6 hours ago
- #Elevation Adjustment
- #WHO Guidelines
- #Anaemia Burden
- The study compares the impact of WHO's 2001 and 2024 haemoglobin elevation adjustment guidelines on global anaemia estimates from 1990 to 2023.
- Using the WHO 2024 method, global anaemia prevalence in 2023 was 26.4%, 2.4 percentage points higher than the 24.0% estimated with the 2001 method, adding about 198 million cases.
- The increase elevates anaemia from the third to the second leading cause of disability worldwide, with the largest prevalence rises in regions at 500-2000 m elevation, such as eastern sub-Saharan Africa and central Asia.
- Researchers used population-based modelling with spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression to estimate mild, moderate, and severe anaemia by age, sex, and location for 204 countries and territories.
- The findings highlight the need for policymakers to consider updated guidelines in anaemia interventions, especially in areas most affected by elevation adjustments, to ensure unbiased and comparable burden estimates.