A study on the prevalence and frequency rates of iron deficiency anemia among patients in el. Khorma province, western Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The objective of this study is to investigate the prevalence and frequency rates of iron deficiency anemia among patients attending to a large special medical clinic called Al. Elaj in El. Khorma Province, Western Saudi Arabia. A total of 300 blood specimen of patients 83.3% females and 16.6% males, all aged (18-44 years), were examined for complete blood count (CBC), hemoglobin and hematocrit levels, iron profile and the hemoglobin electrophoresis. Based on hemoglobin levels, the prevalence of iron deficiency anemia was 34.7 % (33% females and 1.7% males). For the two groups of the study, mainly the iron deficiency anemia was found. By severity of anemia, mild anemia showed the highest prevalence (63.5%) followed by moderate anemia (25.9%) and severe anemia (10.6%). According to age groups, the highest prevalence of iron deficiency anemia was found in (27-35) age group which was being (41.3 and 4.8%) in females and males respectively, with statistically significant difference between females and males (p < 0.05). In the mean hemoglobin and hematocrit levels in anemia cases, the highest mean value was recorded in males being (10.23±1.3) and (34.8±4.09) for hemoglobin and hematocrit respectively. Mean (±SD) value for red blood cells (RBC), serum iron, serum ferritin and Total Iron Binding Capacity (TIBC) in anemic cases were (4.17±0.4, 4.6±0.29), (31.6±4.7, 37.25±1.7), (10.7±4.6, 33.27±7.5) and (363.4±41.3, 358.8±44.8) in females and males respectively. Thus, the results of this study illustrated that iron deficiency anemia is highly prevalent (34.7%) among adults, especially in females (33%) in the study area.