| Autor: |
Lorenzo Savioli, Hababu M. Chwaya, Marco Albonico, Kerry Schulze, James M. Tielsch, Rebecca J. Stoltzfus |
| Rok vydání: |
1997 |
| Předmět: |
|
| Zdroj: |
The Journal of Nutrition. 127:293-298 |
| ISSN: |
0022-3166 |
| DOI: |
10.1093/jn/127.2.293 |
| Popis: |
In many African populations, the prevalences of both iron deficiency and malarial infection exceed 50%. The control of iron deficiency anemia is of urgent public health importance, but assessment of iron status in these contexts has been controversial because of the effects of malarial disease on common iron status indicators. We assessed iron status in 3605 school children in Zanzibar by measuring hemoglobin, erythrocyte protoporphyrin (EP) and serum ferritin concentrations. Malaria parasitemia was quantified by counting against leukocytes. Iron deficiency was highly prevalent: 62.4% of hemoglobin concentrations were 80 micromol/mol heme, and 41.5% of ferritin concentrations were 1000 parasites/microL, but the relationship of ferritin to hemoglobin or EP was strong even when parasite densities exceeded this cutoff. The population prevalences of iron deficiency were not significantly biased by malarial infection. In this population of school children, iron status assessment using these indicators was not seriously influenced by malarial infection. We hypothesize that these indicators perform reliably in populations in which malarial infection is infrequently associated with disease; namely older children and adults in holoendemic environments. |
| Databáze: |
OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
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