Risks of iron deficiency among vegetarian college women

Abstract

Iron deficiency anemia is the most common nu-tritional deficiency disease worldwide and poses a major threat in women of child-bearing age and those who follow a vegetarian diet. The objective of this study was to ascertain whether differences exist in iron status markers between female uni-versity students following a vegetarian and non-vegetarian diet. This study took a cross secti-onal analysis of 39 female students at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly State Uni-versity) in San Luis Obispo, CA between the ages of 18 and 22. Of the participants, 19 followed a vegetarian diet and 20 followed a nonvegetarian diet. Characteristic, demographic, and anthropo-metric data were collected and analyzed. The re-sults showed no significant difference in iron intake between the two groups. However, nearly 66% of vegetarians and 65% of non-vegetarians failed to meet the Recommended Daily Allow-ance for iron. No significant difference was found for serum iron, serum ferritin, transferrin satura-tion, and total iron binding capacity between su-bjects. Serum ferritin tended to be lower for vege-tarians compared to non-vegetarians. Both vege-tarians and non-vegetarians were in stage IV neg-ative iron balance, with more vegetarians tend-ing to be in stage IV negative iron balance than non-vegetarians. Thus, female college students, irrespective of their meat intake, may be at hig-her risk of developing negative iron balance and should be educated about iron deficiency ane-mia and the prevention of iron depletion.