Blood Donation, Being Asian, and a History of Iron Deficiency Are Stronger Predictors of Iron Deficiency than Dietary Patterns in Premenopausal Women
Table 1
Characteristics of study subjects with and without suboptimal iron status.
Characteristic
Subjects with sufficient iron stores ()a
Subjects with suboptimal iron status ()b
valuec
Age (year)
0.02
BMI (kg/m2)
0.35
SF (g/L)
<0.001
Hb (g/L)
<0.001
Ethnicity
European
239 (78.6)
43 (61.4)
0.002
Asian
36 (11.8)
20 (28.6)
Other
29 (9.5)
7 (10.0)
Born in New Zealand
177 (58.2)
35 (50.0)
0.23
Having children
80 (26.3)
32 (45.7)
0.002
Any blood donation in the past year
24 (7.9)
19 (27.1)
<0.001
Having nose bleeds
30 (9.9)
8 (11.4)
0.83
Estimated menstrual blood loss (blood loss units)
0.137
Duration of menstrual period (d)
0.004
Using oral contraception
99 (32.7)
12 (17.1)
0.013
Using intrauterine deviced
17 (5.6)
2 (2.9)
0.547
Used low dose iron supplements or multivitamins in the past year
87 (28.7)
21 (30.0)
0.88
Previous iron deficiency
116 (38.2)
39 (55.7)
0.01
Smokerd
21 (6.9)
3 (4.3)
0.591
Data are mean ± standard deviation or (%). SF 20 g/L and Hb 120 g/L.
bSF < 20 g/L (Hb < 120 or ≥120 g/L).
c value is for a test of differences between groups as assessed by the independent -test (continuous data) or chi-square test (categorical data) (adequate expected values).
dDifference between groups assessed using Fisher’s exact test as expected values <5.0. BMI: body mass index; Hb: hemoglobin; SF: serum ferritin.