Despite advances in healthcare, anaemia and iron deficiency
(ID) remain the most common disorders in women.1–3 Globally,
the prevalence of anaemia increased to 30% in non-pregnant
women of reproductive age (15–49 yr).4
Prevalence of IDA varies widely by age, sex, race and geographical
areas.5,6 A study in Saudi Arabia reported prevalence of IDA by
20.5%, among school students.7
IDA impairs physical activity and cognitive performance and
may also cause irreversible intergenerational effects when it occurs
in women of reproductive age8; and detrimental findings have
even been reported for those with non-anaemic ID.9
Hemoglobin (Hb) concentration and complete blood count
(CBC) are used for primary evaluation of anaemia. A CBC can be
helpful in determining the mean corpuscular volume (MCV), which
measures the average size of RBCs, and mean corpuscular Hemoglobin
concentration, which measures the concentration of Hemoglobin
in a given amount of packed RBCs. The common
characteristics of IDA include hypochromic RBCs, microcytic, and
low iron stores. The red cell distribution width (RDW) is a measure
used in combination with the MCV to differentiate between mixed
causes for anaemia from that of a single cause. An elevated RDW
value signifies a variation in the size of the red blood cell. In addition,
RDW may also be elevated at the early stages of IDA.10 Hemoglobin
(Hb) concentration is the most commonly used test to
screen for IDA which reflects the amount of functional iron in the
body. Because changes in Hb concentration occur only at the late
stages of iron deficiency, it is a late indicator of iron deficiency.11
Hence, there is a need to have a screening test which is cheap
and of high reliability and accuracy in identifying the iron deficiency.
The definitive test for the diagnosis of iron deficiency is
the bone marrow aspiration (to assess the iron stores). The procedure,
however, is invasive, difficult and expensive for a very common
medical problem especially in developing countries. Alternate
to bone marrow aspiration test is serum ferritin, which is found to
be the best test for distinguishing those with ID from those who
are not iron deficient.12–18
Unfortunately, serum ferritin estimation test is not available
freely at many primary health care centers, especially in developing
countries.
Therefore, this study was conducted to detect the prevalence of
iron deficiency and iron deficiency anaemia among healthy women
of child bearing age and to explore if it could be detected by simple
parameters obtained on a complete blood count, using serum ferritin
level as a standard of reference. |
