Evidence Hub

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

Tear AA, Tesno FA, Shofiadeita H, Bunga GM, Taqiya HN, Sanditha NA, Fayyaza AH, Tambunan SKT et al.

Annals of medicine, 2026

861,540 participants · 1 citation

Abstract

Background: Osteoporosis significantly impacts global morbidity. Recent evidence suggests anaemia may contribute to osteoporosis risk. This systematic review and meta-analysis investigates this association.

Methods: 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.

Result: 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 2 = 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.

Conclusion: 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.

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a meta-analysis, done in people. Its evidence level is 1 of 5 (Highest · pooled evidence). Pooled evidence from several studies sits at the top of the evidence pyramid. Reported size: 861,540 participants or records.

How the five levels of evidence work. The level is assigned automatically from the abstract and can be wrong, so check the paper.

Read the paper

Related studies

Go deeper in Evidence Hub

Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.

Open this study Sign up free