Association between anaemia and osteoporosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Osteoporosis significantly impacts global morbidity. Recent evidence suggests anaemia may contribute to osteoporosis risk. This systematic review and meta-analysis investigates this association.
PubMed, Scopus, EBSCO, and ScienceDirect were searched for papers. Studies with definition of anaemia and assessing osteoporosis outcomes were included. Meta-analysis utilized random-effects models (DerSimonian-Laird method), and study quality was assessed via Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). Analyses were performed using R Studio.
Eighteen studies (861,540 participants) were analyzed. Anaemia significantly increased osteoporosis risk in univariate analysis (OR 1.62; 95% CI 1.33–1.98; p < 0.001), despite high heterogeneity (I2 = 92.7%). The results remain significant in studies that reported multivariate analysis (OR 2.01; 95% CI 1.26–3.21; p = 0.004). Sensitivity analyses confirmed the robustness of our result.
Anaemia significantly associated with osteoporosis, emphasizing the need for targeted screening in anaemic individuals. Further studies should consider incorporating anaemia into osteoporosis and fracture prediction tools.