Original Contribution Z Gerontol Geriat DOI 10.1007/s00391-016-1092-3 Received: 4 December 2015 Revised: 25 February 2016 Accepted: 19 May 2016 © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016 Gabriele Röhrig 1,2 · Ymkje Rücker 1 · Ingrid Becker 3 · Ralf-Joachim Schulz · Romana Lenzen-Großimlinghaus 4 · Peter Willschrei 5 · Sybille Gebauer 6 · Mirja Modreker 7 · Martin Jäger 8 · Rainer Wirth 9,10 1 Ageing Clinical Research, Department II of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany 2 Department of Geriatrics, St. Marien-Hospital, Cologne, Germany 3 Institute of Medical Statistics, Informatics and Epidemiology, Cologne, Germany 4 Medical Department of Geriatrics, Klinikum Ernst von Bergmann gGmbh, Potsdam, Germany 5 Clinic for Geriatric Medicine, Kliniken Essen Mitte, Essen, Germany 6 Geriatric Department, Dominikus Hospital, Berlin, Germany 7 Clinic for Geriatric Medicine and Geriatric Rehabilitation, Helios Kliniken Schwerin, Schwerin, Germany 8 Clinic for Geriatric Medicine, St. Vinzenz-Hospital Dinslaken, Dinslaken, Germany 9 St. Marien-Hospital Borken, Department for Geriatric Medicine, Borken, Germany 10 Institute for Biomedicine of Aging, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Nürnberg, Germany Association of anemia with functional and nutritional status in the German multicenter study “GeriAnaemie2013” Introduction Anemia is a common finding in older patients and is associated with increased mortality, increased morbidity and func- tional decline [6, 22, 30]. Several in- ternational studies have shown that the prevalence of anemia varies depending on the population studied. A study of the third National Health and Nutrition Ex- amination survey (NHANES 1991–1994) showed an anemia prevalence of > 20 % among community dwelling seniors > 85 years [8]. A more recent study among home dwelling people in rural India was consistent with this finding [21]. A sys- tematic review by Gaskell et al. [7] among geriatric inpatients > 65 years living in developed countries found an anemia prevalence of 40 %. Bach et al. [2] showed a comparable prevalence of ane- mia among geriatric inpatients aged 90+ years; however, data concerning anemia On behalf of the working group “Nutrition and metabolism” of the German Geriatric Society (DGG). prevalence among German geriatric in- patients are still rare and mostly derived from monocentric studies. Te German Geriatric Society therefore decided to initiate the first multicentric study on anemia prevalence among geriatric in- patients. Te primary objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of anemia. Further study objectives com- prised the impact of anemia on functional ability measured by the Barthel index (BI) and the evaluation of nutritional status and drug intake in anemic patients. In a recent study from India anemia, risk of malnutrition and physical disability have been associated in community dwelling patients aged 60+ years [21]. Previous international studies were found to be as- sociated anemia and malnutrition with functional decline and frailty [11, 12, 25, 26]; therefore, this first multicenter study on German geriatric inpatients is intended to provide data with respect to anemia prevalence, its impact on func- tional ability and its association with nu- tritional status and drug intake in this increasing population. Patients and methods Between June 2013 and December 2014 a total of 579 geriatric inpatients were consecutively recruited on admission in 6 participating German study centers (5 geriatric centers and 1 general emergency department of a university hospital). Te recruitment interval was 4–6 weeks in ev- ery study center. Included were patients > 70 years admitted to the geriatric depart- ment or, in the case of the general emer- gency department, with the intention of being admitted to a geriatric department. All study patients gave informed con- sent. Patients with current cancer disease or cancer-associated treatment were not included in the study. Functional sta- tus was measured by the Hamburg clas- sification manual [16] based on the BI [17]. Handgrip strength was measured with a GLS Martin ® Vigorimeter (Ge- brüder Martin GmbH & Co KG, Tutt- lingen, Germany) and the reference val- ues for reduced handgrip were males < 66 kPa and females < 38 kPa [30]. Nutri- tional status was assessed by patient self- Zeitschrift für Gerontologie und Geriatrie