Title

Association of socio-economic status with dietary habits and anemia prevalence in the geriatric population

Authors

Sharanya Kandaswamy^1,*, Cibi Kannan², Jeevithan Shanmugam³, T.M Karthikeyan¹ & Balaji Venkatesan⁴

Affiliation

¹Department of Pathology, KMCH Institute of Health Sciences and Research, Coimbatore, India; ²Department of General Medicine, KMCH Institute of Health Sciences and Research, Coimbatore, India; ³Department of Community Medicine, KMCH Institute of Health Sciences and Research, Coimbatore, India; ⁴KMCH Institute of Health Sciences and Research, Coimbatore, India; *Corresponding author

Email

Sharanya Kandaswamy - E-mail: sharanyakaushik87@gmail.com
Cibi Kannan - E-mail: cibirahul@gmail.com
Jeevithan Shanmugam - E-mail: dr.jeevithan@gmail.com
T.M Karthikeyan - E-mail: karthikeyan.tmariappan@gmail.com
Balaji Venkatesan - E-mail: balajivenkatesan04@gmail.com

Article Type

Research Article

Date

Received February 1, 2026; Revised February 28, 2026; Accepted February 28, 2026, Published February 28, 2026

Abstract

Socioeconomic status (SES) strongly influences food choices, dietary diversity and healthcare access, potentially increasing anemia prevalence in geriatric individuals. Therefore, it is of interest to examine the association between socioeconomic status (SES), nutritional habits and anemia prevalence among 336 geriatric individuals aged ≥60 years. SES was assessed using the Modified Kuppuswamy Scale (2024), alongside dietary habits and hemoglobin levels. Anemia prevalence was 48.2%, with low SES showing significantly higher rates (61.4%) than middle (44.8%) or high SES (29.6%) groups (p < 0.001). Dietary inadequacies were markedly more common in the low SES group. This study advances knowledge by providing India-specific evidence linking graded SES differences to anemia and poor nutrition in older adults, guiding targeted interventions.

Keywords

Anemia, geriatric population, socio-economic status, dietary habits, dietary diversity, nutrition, Modified Kuppuswamy Scale

Citation

Kandaswamy et al. Bioinformation 22(2): 759-763 (2026)

Edited by

Vini Mehta

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.