PREVALENCE OF ANEMIA, IRON DEFICIENCY, AND IRON DEFICIENCY ANEMIA AND DIAGNOSTIC PERFORMANCE OF HEMATOLOGIC AND BIOCHEMICAL MARKERS OF SIDEROPENIA IN 1- TO 5-YEAR-OLD CHILDREN IN THRACE GREECE: Prevalence of ID, IDA and anemia in Greek Thrace

Background and Objectives: Iron deficiency (ID) is a major public health problem with high prevalence in early childhood. We assessed the prevalence of anemia, ID, and iron deficiency anemia (IDA) in healthy children of Thrace, Greece, its correlation with dietary factors, and evaluated the diagnostic performance of hematologic and biochemical markers of sideropenia. Patients and Methods: For 202 healthy children 1-5 years old, a questionnaire was filled out describing their nutritional habits during infancy and early childhood. Venous hemograms along with serum ferritin, TIBC, %TS, and CRP were obtained from all studied children. In a subset of 156 children, the concentration of sTfR was also determined. Results: Children with ID and IDA had significantly lower beef consumption than children without sideropenia (p=0.044). Using the WHO cut-off values of Hb