Abstract
This study was designed to assess the iron nutritional status and anemia of middle school girls in Ulsan City, who were evaluated with a questionnaire, measurement of hematological indices. The average height and weight of respondents were 154.81$\pm$6.28cm and 48.51$\pm$8.80kg, respectively. Mean daily energy intake was 1815.72$\pm$328.04kcal and iron intake was 15.13$\pm$4.50mg. The average hemoglobin concentration of subjects was 11.98$\pm$0.78g/dl, and the average hematocrit level was 36.62$\pm$2.21%. Transferrin saturationTS (%) was 25.58$\pm$9.82%, and the ferritin level was 40.45$\pm$23.03ng/ml. Iron deficiency anemia among the subjects was estimated as 54.2% by using hemoglobin(<12g/이), 33.9% by hematocrit (<36%). The clinical symptoms relating anemia were measured with 4 Likert scale (1 : never, 4 : often), 'tired out easily (2.34$\pm$0.92)' was the highest, followed by 'feel dizzy always (2.26$\pm$0.85)', 'decreasing ability to concentrate (2.23$\pm$0.77)', 'get a cold easily (2.19$\pm$0.82)', 'have a headache (2.10$\pm$0.79)', 'poor memory (2.09$\pm$0.83)', 'no appetite (1.99$\pm$0.85)', As for the correlation between iron parameter and clinical symptoms related to anemia, the hematocrit rate was negatively correlated with 'get a cold easily', 'pale face', 'feeling blue', 'difficult digestion' (p<0.05). The level of iron was negatively correlated with 'tired out easily', 'get a cold easily' (p<0.05) and TS (%) were negatively correlated with 'tired out easily (p<0.05)', 'get a cold easily (p<0.01). Our study resulted that the prevalence of a iron deficiency of a middle school girl is very high, therefore the guidelines for iron supplementation and nutritional education to improve their iron status should be provided.
