Iron deficiency: a public health problem in children

Abstract

Iron deficiency exists when the body's iron stores are insufficient to meet metabolic needs. It is estimated that 33% of the world's population has anemia, with 273 million preschoolers, 43% of all children, the majority due to iron deficiency. Of the markers of iron deficiency, ferritin is a good marker of iron stores and should be used for the diagnosis of iron deficiency in healthy individuals. In the absence of inflammation, serum ferritin concentration in plasma is positively correlated with the size of iron stores in the body. The WHO recommends that in healthy children under 5 years old, ferritin levels <12 (µg/L) be considered iron deficiency, and in case of an inflammatory or infectious process, the Cut off becomes less than 30 (µg/L). For other age groups, levels of 15 and 70 (µg/L) of ferritin are considered, respectively, for healthy individuals or those with infection/inflammation. The WHO recommends that where infection or inflammation occurs, serum ferritin should be evaluated concomitantly with two markers of the acute phase, preferably C-reactive protein (CRP) and α-1 acid glycoprotein.