Epidemiology of iron deficiency in Russia: serum ferritin values depending on sex and age

Abstract

The high prevalence of iron deficiency (ID) in women and its important negative impact on the health care system is beyond doubt. The presence of severe problems of a systemic nature requires the development of special state programs to combat ID. The development of such programs is impossible without conducting epidemiological studies in each specific country. The purpose of this work is to determine the frequency and severity of ID in terms of serum ferritin (SF) in primary outpatients, depending on gender and age. The study was conducted in 15 large cities of Russia, in total, 1737 primary patients were included, of which 97 were males and 1640 were females. When studying the parameters of SF in general groups, its values are significantly lower in females, and average 40 ± 99 μg/l, while 61% of this cohort of patients have SF less than 30 μg/l, and 70% live in conditions of SF below target values, which requires the development of preventive programs to combat ID among female patients. Between the ages of 16 and 49, almost all females live in conditions of absolute ID, and it is probably in this group that the above activities should be carried out. On the contrary, as regards male patients, judging by the data obtained, a mandatory determination of SF is required to make a decision on conducting ferrotherapy.