747 Ethiological Factors and Prevalence of Zinc Deficiency in Children with Iron Deficiency Anemia

Abstract

Introduction and aim: Iron deficiency is the most common nutritional deficiency in developing and developed countries. In the developing countries iron and zinc deficiency are seen together. In our study we researched the prevalence of zinc deficiency and etiological factors in iron deficiency anemia. Materials and method A study group consisted of 40 children, aged between 1-14 years, diagnosed with iron deficiency anemia who submitted to our clinic with different complaints between January and August 2010. Control group consisted of 40 healthy childiren Age, sex, birth weights, history of mother's prophylactic iron suplement used in pregnancy, prophylactic iron supplement usage, breastfeeding duration time, initial supplement feeding age, meat, fruits-vegetables consumption, pica history, the blood count variables, serum iron levels, iron binding capacity, ferritin and serum zinc levels were recorded. Findigs There was no significant difference between test and control groups in duration of breast feeding time and initial time for supplementary feeding(p>0.05). Positive correlation was found between breast feeding time and iron levels and transferrin saturation indices(p<0.01). Fruits and vegetables consumption were found significantly low in test grup. Number of hospital admissions were also found to be significantly high in the test group. The serum zinc levels of the children who have had prophylactic iron suplements were significantly high compared with the children who have had no prophylaxis (p<0.05). Conclusions As a result of this research, factors namely breast feeding duration time, prophylactic use of iron supplements and fruit and vegetables consumptions have a large role to prevent children from the iron deficiency.