Abstract
Anemia defined as reduced hemoglobin levels of red blood cells may carry less oxygen to skeletal muscle and impair physical performance. Previous studies have shown that exercise intolerance was related to moderate or severe anemia, however, the relationship to mild anemia was unknown. We investigated the cross-sectional association of mild anemia defined as a hemoglobin level of 10.0–13.9 g/dL with physical fitness in 3,666 military young males in Taiwan in 2014. Aerobic fitness was evaluated by 3000-meter run test, and anaerobic fitness was evaluated by 2-minute sit-ups and 2-minute push-ups, respectively. Multiple logistic regressions for the best 10% and the worst 10% performers were used to determine the relationship. There were 343 mild anemic males in whom 47.8% were microcytic anemia and 3,323 non-anemic males for the analysis. The multiple logistic regression shows that as compared with non-anemic males, mild anemic males were more likely to be the worst 10% performers in the 3000-meter run test (odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals: 1.47, 1.01–2.14) after adjusting for age, service specialty, body mass index, waist size, mean blood pressure, unhealthy behaviors, lipid profiles, and exercise frequency. On the contrary, mild anemic males had higher possibility to be the best 10% performers in the 2-minute push-ups test (OR: 1.48, 1.08–2.04). However, there was no association between mild anemia and 2-minute sit-ups. Our findings suggest that unspecified mild anemia might be associated with lower cardiorespiratory fitness but not with anaerobic fitness in physically active military males.
Highlights
Anemia defined as reduced hemoglobin levels of red blood cells may carry less oxygen to skeletal muscle and impair physical performance
We aimed to investigate the association between mild anemia and physical performance in a large military cohort of young males who are free of chronic diseases and used to receiving regular daily rigorous training
On the basis of our findings, mild anemia might reduce the performance of short-to-medium distance running, a kind of aerobic exercise, but not affect the capacity of anaerobic exercises including short-time sit-ups and push-ups of the military males
Summary
Anemia defined as reduced hemoglobin levels of red blood cells may carry less oxygen to skeletal muscle and impair physical performance. We investigated the cross-sectional association of mild anemia defined as a hemoglobin level of 10.0–13.9 g/dL with physical fitness in 3,666 military young males in Taiwan in 2014. Previous reports have revealed that iron deficiency anemia may impair aerobic exercise performance by a reduction in oxygen-transport capacity of blood cells and a decrease in maximal consumption of oxygen peripherally[9,10]. We aimed to investigate the association between mild anemia and physical performance in a large military cohort of young males who are free of chronic diseases and used to receiving regular daily rigorous training
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