The Rates of and Relationship between Anemia and Deficiency of Iron, Zinc, Vitamin B12 and Folic Acid in Hospitalized Children

Aim: Increased frequency of deficiency due to the insufficient intake of iron, zinc, vitamin B12-D and folic acid has been reported in the society. We aimed to investigate the rates of deficiency of these vitamins and minerals, as well as anemia frequency in children admitted to pediatric outpatient clinics of our tertiary hospital in a retrospective three-year period.

Materials and Methods: The frequency of micronutrient deficiency and the relationship between them was determined using statistical methods by evaluating the levels of hematocrit and other micronutritional elements in patients admitted to the general pediatrics outpatient clinics of our hospital between 01.06.2015 and 31.05.2018. The only patient inclusion criteria were being tested for zinc, iron, iron binding, hemogram, vitamin B12, folic acid, ferritin and vitamin D for any reason.

Results: After the evaluation of 64487 patients, we discovered the rates of anemia and iron, zinc, folate, vitamin D, vitamin B12 and ferritin deficiency as 30.8%, 52.1%, 41.1%, 18.2%, 32.4%, 20.1% and%26.7 respectively. Additionally, our results indicate that the frequency of folic acid deficiency decreased over the past years, whereas the rates of zinc and vitamin D deficiency increased over time. The final results show a negative correlation between anemia and folic acid, vitamin D, vitamin B12 and iron binding capacity, and a positive correlation between anemia and iron, ferritin and zinc.

Conclusion: Although it does not reflect the frequency of deficiency in the general population since the data are collected from hospitalized children, it could be argued that multiple micronutrient deficiencies are significantly common in Turkey and zinc and vitamin D deficiency has been increasing over the years, when compared with the results of previous studies.