A method to estimate prevalence of iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia in adolescent Jamaican girls.
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.
Himes
J H
JH
Division of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA. himes@epivax.epi.umn.edu
Walker
S P
SP
Williams
S
S
Bennett
F
F
Grantham-McGregor
S M
SM
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
D006454:Hemoglobins