Anaemia was the indication for endoscopy in 294 (1.9 %) of 15,632 procedures. Findings in patients referred for anaemia included GU in 28 (9.7 %), DU in 24 (8.2 %), gastric cancer in 13 (4.4 %), oesophageal varices in 21 (7.5 %) and oesophageal cancer in 2 (0.7 %). Anaemia as an indication for endoscopy was associated with a borderline increased probability of diagnosis of gastric cancer (OR 1.73, 95 % CI 1.01, 2.96; P = 0.06) and oesophageal varices (OR 1.59, 95 % CI 1.04, 2.42; P < 0.05), but not peptic ulceration, which was no more frequent than in the whole dataset.