relationship of anemia and serum ferritin in medical students

aims: anemia occurs for different reasons. however the iron deficiency anemia (ida) is one of the most prevalent causes of anemia in all human communities. the goal of the present study was to assess the effect of serum ferritin deficiency on anemia in medical students. materials & methods: this cross-sectional study was conducted on students of kashan university of medical sciences in all educational stages in 2011. 323 students were selected randomly. the hemoglobin, hematocrit, mcv, mch, mchc, ferritin and rdw indices were measured. the data was analyzed by spss 13 statistical software using chi-square and independent t tests. findings: the mean of ferritin level in all samples was 46.2±42.8ng/ml, hemoglobin was 13.1±1.4g/dl, hematocrit was 39.2±5.2%, mcv was 85.4±6.4fl, mch was 29.2±6.1%, mchc was 32.9±1.3g/dl and rdw was 13.6±0.5g/dl. 62 of studied individuals (19.2%) had minor anemia and 261 (80.8%) were normal. 31 of studied individuals (9.6%) had ferritin deficiency and 292 (90.4%) had normal ferritin. there was a significant difference between anemia according to gender (p=0.001) and educational level (p=0.01). ferritin deficiency had also significant difference according to gender. according to gender, there were significant differences in ferritin, hemoglobin, hematocrit and rdw levels. according to age, there were significant differences between ferritin and hematocrit and rdw levels. mchc level had significant difference according to living site of the students. conclusion: girl university students are at the risk of anemia caused by lack of ferritin and aging increases the risk of anemia.