Development of Screening Tool Identifying Korean Adolescent females at Fe Deficiency Anemic Status.

Abstract

To develop a simple screening tool for identifying Korean adolescent females at risk of Fe deficiency anemic status. Dietary intake, dietary behavior food habit, anthropometric data and biochemical data were obtained from the subjects.The field survey was carried out with 94 anemic female students(middle school: 90, high school: 104) and 253 normal female students(middle school: 159, high school: 94). The parameter used to evaluate the students as anemic was hemoglobin(Hb<11.5g/dl). Significant factors related to anemia were investigated and selected to make screening tool with can be used to screen out the subjects with the risk of anemia. Screening tools including dietary and non‐dietary factors were developed for each middle school and high school student. Above all, we developed convenient food frequency questionnaire for predicting iron intake or hemoglobin. We used convenient food frequency questionnaire(Fe 15food items) for development of screening tool. Fe index with 15 food items, frequency of soybean curds and soy products, education of mother, biceps skinfold thickness were adopted in the screening tool for middle school girls. There factors explained 32.0% of the variation in hemoglobin and the sensitivity was 81.25% to screen out anemic subjects evaluated as anemic with Hb(<11.5g/dl). For high school students, the screening tool was consisted with Fe index with 15 food items, biceps skinfold thickness, height and family size. There factors significantly explanined 24.7% of the variation of hemoglobin and the sensitivity was 75.5%.