Haemoglobin adjustments to define anaemia.
OBJECTIVE
To provide researchers with an unambiguous definition of anaemia using haemoglobin.


METHODS
Review of recommendations by expert groups and review of the literature.


RESULTS
This report provides an unambiguous approach to haemoglobin adjustments to define anaemia using international criteria. When determining anaemia using haemoglobin, it is important to account for pregnancy, altitude, cigarette smoking, and possibly ethnicity after removing unlikely values. These haemoglobin adjustments are presented.


CONCLUSIONS
Recommendations for defining extreme haemoglobin values and for reporting anaemia and haemoglobin results are provided, and software programs to determine anaemia are described.
Sullivan
Kevin M
KM
Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta GA 30322, USA. cdckms@sph.emory.edu
Mei
Zuguo
Z
Grummer-Strawn
Laurence
L
Parvanta
Ibrahim
I
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000531:Altitude; D018798:Anemia, Iron-Deficiency / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000517:prevention & control; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted; D005260:Female; D006452:Hemoglobinometry / Q000379:methods; D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011247:Pregnancy; D011250:Pregnancy Complications, Hematologic / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000517:prevention & control; D012720:Severity of Illness Index
D006454:Hemoglobins