The Prevalence of Iron Deficiency Anaemia in Female Medical Students in Tehran

Introduction: Female adolescents and adults are among the population groups who are most affected by iron deficiency. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of iron deficiency and iron deficiency anaemia in female students aged 18 to 25 years old from the Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran.

Methods: 295 female university students participated in the study. The mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and haemoglobin (Hb), serum ferritin, serum iron and total iron binding capacity (TIBC) levels were measured. Iron deficiency anaemia was defined as a situation where Hb is less than 12 g/dL, MCV is less than 78 microm3, ferritin is less than 12 ng/ml or transferin saturation (TS) (iron/TIBC x 100) is less than 15 percent, Iron deficiency (ID) was defined as a situation where Hb is greater than or equal to 12 g/dL, MCV is greater than or equal to 74 microm3, ferritin is less than 12 ng/ml or TS is less than 15 percent.

Results: The complete data was available for 237 students. The prevalence of ID was 40.9 percent and that of IDA was 3.8 percent. Normal iron status was found in 49.8 percent of the subjects. The remaining (5.5 percent) had other kinds of anaemia or required confirmatory tests.

Conclusion: ID is common among 18 to 25-year-old Iranian female university students. Iron supplementation is thus required for the target group.