Appropriateness of the study of iron deficiency anemia prior to referral for small bowel evaluation at a tertiary center

Table 5 Univariate analysis of factors associated with the decision to proceed to small bowel evaluation n (%)

Characteristics	SBevaluated	SB not evaluated	P value1
	(n = 56, 72.7%)	(n = 21, 27.3%)
Age, yr (mean ± SD)	65.0 ± 17.3	72.6 ± 14.2	0.077
Female	35 (62.5)	10 (47.6)	0.238
General Practice referral	27 (48.2)	14 (66.7)	0.148
Hemoglobin, g/dL (mean ± SD)	8.7 ± 2.1	9.2 ± 1.6	0.299
Microcytosis	40 (71.4)	15 (71.4)	0.933
Hypochromia	39 (69.6)	17 (81.0)	0.510
Female, < 40 yr	6 (100)	0 (0.0)	0.118
Appropriate study at referral	15 (26.8)	2 (9.5)	0.104
EGD	56 (100)	19 (90.5)	0.072
Quality colonoscopy	44 (78.6)	5 (23.8)	< 0.001
Celiac Disease screening	17 (30.4)	2 (9.5)	0.059

¹Student’s t-test, Mann-Whitney U test, Fisher’s exact test or the χ² test, as appropriate; P value of 0.05 indicating statistical significance. SB: Small bowel; SD: Standard deviation; EGD: Esophagogastroduodenoscopy.