Objectives
the study was done to assess the prevalence of iron deficiency (ID) and iron deficiency anemia (IDA) among secondary school adolescent Sudanese girls. The effect of Socio-demographic factors in their iron status was also studied.
Methods
446 adolescent girls (13-18y) from 10 secondary schools in Bahry locality in Khartoum province were included in random cross-sectional study to assess iron status. The sample size was potent by an estimated prevalence of 17.6% of iron deficiency in adolescent girls with a precision of 5% at 95% confidence limit with a design effect of two (rural and urban). We used the standard indicators recommended by WHO to assess iron status in a population. CRP was estimated firstly to exclude any sample with high acute phase protein then complete blood count ( CBC), serum ferritin (SF), and serum transferrin receptors (stfr) were measured and body iron store was calculated. A questionnaire was completed by all participants. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 21? for windows.?
Results
The prevalence of anemia defined as Hb <12 g/dl was 43.1%. The prevalence of ID and IDA according to SF level was 45.3% and 29.8%, according to stfr, was 28.0% (for ID), and 34.9% and 28.0% (for ID), and 34.9% and Body iron store were, 24.9%, and 26.5% (for IDA) respectively. There was no significant deferent of ID according to SF between rural and urban areas (p= 0.61), but there was significant deferent between public and private schools (p= 0.00).Monthly income affected ID significantly.
Conclusions
the main outcome of the study that anemia was a severe medical problem(43.1%) which require intervention according to WHO guide lines. ID contributed to most cases of anemia. ID was affected by socioeconomic factors rather than demographic factors.
