Nutritional Status of the Aging I. Hemoglobin Levels, Packed Cell Volumes and Sedimentation Rates of 577 Normal Men and Women Over 50 Years of Age

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Abstract
Physical examinations, medical and dietary histories, 7-day diet records and blood and urine analyses were carried out on 577 men and women over 50 years of age. More than 80% were in comfortable middle-class circumstances and all but 47 men were living in their own homes. These 47 men lived in the county home. The hemoglobin levels of the men living in their own homes were higher than those of the women, 14.5 ± 0.3 gm per 100 ml of blood as compared with 13.4 ± 0.3. In the groups 75 years of age and older however, the values declined in both men and women and the difference became insignificant. The mean values were 1 to 2 gm % lower than those usually reported for young adults but the discrepancy was greater in men than in women. The volume of packed cells was likewise larger in men than in women, 47.1 ± 0.7% in men living in their own homes and 44.6 ± 0.5 in women. These values are equal to those usually quoted as normal for young adults. The mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration for these men and women was 31 and 30%, somewhat lower than in young adults, and due to the apparently increased cell size in the older subjects. The sedimentation rates were higher in women than in men and tended to increase with advancing age. Eighty-four per cent of the men and 52% of the women had rates 0 to 20 mm per hour, and 16% of the men and 48% of the women 21 to 50. The diet records indicated that the men living in their own homes ate from 15 to 34%, mean 27, more calories and protein and 0 to 50%, mean 26, more iron per kilogram body weight than the women in the same age groups. The protein calories were 14% of the total in both sexes and the iron intake 6.0 and 6.1 mg per 1000 calories. The qualitative nature of the diets was apparently the same. A trend toward decrease with age in intake of these nutrients was evident. The majority of the higher intakes of both protein and iron were found in the groups with higher levels of hemoglobin, the intermediate intakes in those with intermediate hemoglobin levels and the lowest intakes in those with the lowest hemoglobin values. The positive correlation between dietary protein and hemoglobin was + 0.12 and between iron and hemoglobin + 0.13, both significant at the 1% level. The men in the county home exhibited hemoglobin concentrations similar to those of the men living in their own homes but the volume of packed cells was somewhat lower. The protein intake of these men was of the same order as that of women but their iron intake was equal to that of the other men. This may point to greater importance of dietary iron than protein in regard to hemoglobin production or to a sex difference in this function. Although these women had comparable intakes of protein and iron in proportion to total calories and were in all but one case past the menopause, they exhibited low hemoglobin levels in comparison with men of the same ages and general circumstances. At every leve of protein and iron intake the percentage of men supporting a circulating level of 14 gm % or more of hemoglobin was about twice that of the women. There is a possibility that the male sex hormone may influence blood production significantly at least up to 75 years of age.