Research ArticleOpen Access

Epidemiological Study of Iron Deficiency Anemia Among Youth Female Athletes in Kuwait

Volume 8 - Issue 4

**Mahmoud Ali Saleh¹, Abdo Salama Abdo¹, Rasha Shaker Eldesouky¹, Mona Ahmed El Awady¹ and Mai Shaker Almaghrabi*²**

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- ¹Public health and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Benha University, Egypt
- ²Registrar in Sport medicine and Health awareness Center, Public authority for sport and youth, Kuwait
*Corresponding author: Mai Shaker Mahmoud Almaghrabi, master’s in public health and Preventive Medicine, Alexandria University, Registrar in Sport medicine and Health awareness Center, Public authority for sport and youth, Kuwait

Received: August 28, 2018; Published: September 04, 2018

DOI: 10.26717/BJSTR.2018.08.001689

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Abstract

Background: The prevalence of iron deficiency anemia is likely to be higher in athletic populations and groups, especially in younger female athletes, than in healthy sedentary individuals.

The Aim: of this study is to determine the magnitude of this problem among athletes and identify their different dietary habits.

Subjects and Methods: Across sectional study was done. The sample included 150 female players from the female clubs in Kuwait where almost all types of sports activity are practiced at level of national competition. Using structured assisted questionnaire with laboratory investigations.

Results: Fifty five percent of anemic group were non-Kuwaiti, with a statistically significant difference. There was a statistically significant difference between the anemic, iron deficient and normal groups regarding the marital status and occupation, dietary pattern and habits as intake of tea and soft drinks. There were highly statistical significant differences between the three studied groups regarding blood hemoglobin (Hb), Mean corpuscular volume (MCV), Mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), Mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) and Serum ferritin.

Conclusion: A significant relation between dietary habits of female athlete. Also the logistic regression analysis reveals that increased number of soft drinks and tea drinks per day is significantly associated with high probability of having anemia. Women with increased consumption of soft drinks per day and those with high tea consumption per day are more than two times at higher risk of anemia (OR=2.34 and 2.17 respectively). On the other hand, Kuwaiti nationality, increased duration of practicing sport and increased frequency of eating breakfast in the last month subjects are significantly associated with lower probability of having anemia (OR=0.14, 0.74 and 0.17 respectively).

Keywords: Female Athletes; Iron Deficiency; Dietary Iron; Metabolism and Bioavailability; Stages of Iron Deficiency; Dietary Pattern and Habits; Predisposing Factors to Iron Deficiency Anemia