title: Screening for anemia in infants: evidence in favor of using identical hemoglobin criteria for blacks and Caucasians.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the need for separate Hb screening criteria according to race by evaluating the Hb response to a therapeutic trial of iron in 1-yr-old infants. Among the 1128 infants who were screened, a significantly larger percentage of blacks (37%) than Caucasians (22%) had a Hb less than 11.5 g/dl. However, when these screen-positive infants were treated with oral iron for 3 months, the percentage who had a greater than or equal to g/dl response was similar in blacks (38%) and Caucasians (35%). Our results indicated that a slight but significant inherent tendency to lower Hb values among the black infants was counter-balanced by a substantially higher prevalence of iron deficiency anemia. These findings are in favor of using uniform Hb screening criteria in similar populations.
mesh_terms: D000740:Anemia / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000747:Anemia, Hypochromic / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology*; D044383:Black People; D006452:Hemoglobinometry; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007501:Iron / Q000627:therapeutic use; D014481:United States; D044465:White People; D001741:Black or African American
chemical_list: D007501:Iron