title: A method to estimate prevalence of iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia in adolescent Jamaican girls.
abstract: A method is presented to estimate a cutoff for hemoglobin concentration appropriate for estimating the prevalence of iron deficiency anemia in poor Jamaican girls 13-14 y of age. Iron deficiency was determined from a three-variable model of iron status (serum ferritin, erythrocyte protoporphyrin, and mean corpuscular volume). The most appropriate hemoglobin cutoff was considered the one that minimized misclassification of iron deficiency: that yielding the maximum kappa coefficient for correctly classifying iron deficiency between 100 and 120 g/L, at 1-g/L intervals. By using this method, a hemoglobin cutoff of 107 g/L was considered most appropriate. This cutoff and the other indicators were used to estimate prevalence of iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia in the Jamaican girls: 7.6% and 4.3%, respectively. This approach should be appropriate for determining hemoglobin cutoffs for iron deficiency anemia in other populations.
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA. himes@epivax.epi.umn.edu
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Himes
authors.forename: S P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bennett
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Grantham-McGregor
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D018798:Anemia, Iron-Deficiency / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000886:Anthropometry; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006454:Hemoglobins; D006801:Humans; D000090463:Iron Deficiencies; D007563:Jamaica / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012016:Reference Values
chemical_list: D006454:Hemoglobins