Causes of Anemia
Defined as a decrease in RBCs’ mass, anemia is a symptom of disease that requires investigation to determine the underlying etiology.
There are three major causes of anemia:
- Excessive loss of RBCs that seen following trauma or in women during their reproductive years.
- Abnormally rapid destruction of RBCs within the body (hemolysis) that exceeds the replacement ability of bone marrow.
- Deficient RBCs production (ineffective hematopoiesis) due to inadequate intake or poor utilization of dietary iron as seen in malnutrition or helminth (hookworm) infestations.
Anemia can also be due to the nutritional deficiencies.
Other significant causes of anemia are
- Genetic conditions (thalassemia, sickle cell anemia (SCA) or hemoglobinopathies),
- Factors related to reproduction (obstetric complications, gynecological disorders),
- Chronic diseases and malignancies (kidney disease or neoplasia),
- Drug or chemical induced anemia.
The anemia that accompanies infection, inflammation and cancer is commonly termed as anemia of chronic disease.1
The contributing social causes for the development of anemia, particularly among the anemia prone population in developing countries include the following:
- Poverty leading to inability to buy healthy foods or foods with adequate amounts of absorbable iron or to obtain nutritional supplements.
- Low use of antenatal services providing nutritional supplements during pregnancy.
- Lack of trained birth attendants to manage bleeding during delivery.
- Poor sanitation conditions.
- Lack of access to health services that prevent and manage hookworm infestation.
- Exposure to and accidental ingestion of heavy metals particularly lead, as lead interferes with iron absorption and hemoglobin production.
- Poor knowledge on the importance of anemia and anemia prevention and control interventions.
- Practices that restrict food intake including poor infant breastfeeding practices.
- Inadequate introduction of fortified complementary foods for infants and children.
- Blood donation more than two units per year in women and three units per year in men.
Next page: Symptoms of anemia
Written by: Healthplus24 team
Date last updated: July 03, 2011