The Analysis of Anemia in Persons affected leprosy

Background The anemia still remains the most common hematologic disorder in the world despite improvements in general health and nutrition. Recently, the prevalence of anemia in the persons affected leprosy aged over 60 years in Korea was reported 22.4% in 60–69 years and 47.4% in 70 years or older in male and was reported 33.8% in 60–69 years and 46.0% in 70 years or older in female. Objective In the meantime, the studies were limited to the subjects in a specific region, and the number of subjects was not enough, so it was not enough to evaluate the of anemia of persons affected by leprosy in Korea. So this study was conducted to evaluate it's prevalence, types, & presumed causes in settlement villages nationwide. Method This study was conducted that the mobile team visited the resettlement villages nationwide from 2009 to 2019 and conducted on persons affected by leprosy and residents residing in resettlement village. Obtained bloods & serums were assayed (hemoglobin, mean corpucular volume, red blood cell distribution width, serum ferritin, serum iron, TIBC, serum vitamin B12, serum folate). Result The prevalence of anemia was 34.31%(male 36.49%, female 32.97%), the proportion of the anemia classified by MCV was 2.6%(microcytic), 66.3%(normocytic), and 31.1%(macrocytic). Among micro- & normocytic anemia, a cause of the anemia was attributed 12.5% to anemia of iron deficiencies, 7.5% anemia of iron deficiencies with anemia of chronic diseases, and 5% to anemia of chronic diseases, among normo- & macrocytic anemaia, was attributed 8.6% to anemia of vitamin B12 deficiency(< 211 pg/ml) and 23.8% to anemia of folate deficiency(< 5.38 ng/ml). Conclusion In this study, we found that the prevalence of anemia in the persons affected leprosy aged over 60 years was higher than other past reports of general population over 60 years in Korea. So we will consider about the evaluation of higher prevalence of anemia in persons affected leprosy, causes of anemia, especially dapsone-related & other underline disease and management plan for anemia in them by the in-depth studies.