Anemia and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases

Abstract

Objective: To determine the frequency of Anemia in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Material and Methods: This Cross-sectional study was conducted in Pulmonology Ward of Khalifa Gul Nawaz Teaching Hospital, Bannu from September 2012 to May 2013. All male and female patients of age 40 years and above were included having COPD according to the criteria of Pakistan Chest Society. Sample size was 241 and sampling technique was of non probability convenient type. Hemoglobin (Hb) level of every patient was assessed for anemia. Data was analyzed in SPSS version 16 for descriptive statistics. Results: A total of 241 COPD patients were included in this study. Female patients exceeded male, with 129(53.5%) females. Mean age was 63 years ± 11.38 SD. All the patients had variable duration of COPD. Seventy patients had COPD for ≤5 years, 128 patients for 6-20 years, 43 patients had COPD for 21 years and above Anemia was confirmed in 180 (74.7%) patients. Among these cases, 100 (55.55%) were female and the remaining 80 (44.44%) were male. Conclusion: COPD patients had a high prevalence of anemia, and failure to address this may lead to morbidity and mortality.