Masters Theses

Date of Award

3-1980

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Nutrition

Major Professor

Gail Woods Disney

Committee Members

Jane R. Savage, John T. Smith

Abstract

This nutrition status study was conducted at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in conjunction with the Southern Regional Nutrition Project in existence since 1974 in ten sites throughout the Southeast. The primary purposes of the restudy were to evaluate the iron status of adolescent girls, noting influences of race and income upon their iron status, and to investigate relationships between dietary iron, as well as other dietary nutrients, and iron status.

The study involved 94 girls 14 ± 0.5 years of age from Knoxville and Knox County, representing two races (black and white), and two income categories ($1,200 or less/person/year and $2,000 or more/person/year). Two 24-hour dietary recalls were obtained from each girl, allowing correlation with values obtained from biochemical analyses. Fasting blood was collected and analyzed to determine hematocrit, hemoglobin, serum iron, unsaturated iron binding capacity and transferrin saturation.

Fifty-six and four-tenths percent of the 14-year-old girls were consuming less than two-thirds of the RDA for iron. The 14-year-old girls were consuming between 5 and 6 mg of iron per 1000 kilocalories per day.

White girls had significantly higher (p < 0. 05) hemoglobin values than black girls. There were no significant differences in mean hematocrit, serum iron, unsaturated iron binding capacity, transferrin saturation or iron intake values between race/income groups. Hemoglobin values of less than 11.4 g/dl were seen in 8% of all the 14-year-old girls studied, 3.0% among whites and 9.8% among blacks. Only 1% of all subjects had hemoglobin values below 10 g/dl, 0% among whites and 2.0% among blacks.

When the normal hemoglobin standard was lowered 1.0 g/dl for the

black race, the percentage of marginal hemoglobin values in the black population decreased from 9.8%.to 2.0% and the deficient hemoglobin values decreased from 2.0% of the black population to 0%.

Fourteen percent of all girls had serum iron values below 40 μg/dl. Serum iron values below 40 μg/dl were found among 21.2% of the whites and 9.8% of the blacks. Deficient transferrin saturation values were observed for 25% of the entire group, with 33.3% among whites and 19.6% among blacks. High percentages of deficient serum iron (36.4%) and transferrin saturation values (45.5%) seen in upper-income white girls represent depleted iron stores and indicate that this group is vulnerable to iron-deficiency anemia. Lower-income white girls appear to also be at risk with 27.3% having deficient transferrin saturation levels.

There was a significant positive correlation (p < 0.05) between hemoglobin and hematocrit values in lower-income white girls. Hemoglobin values and both serum iron and transferrin saturation values were positively correlated (p < 0.05) in black girls. Correlations between iron status measures and ascorbic acid, vitamin A, iron and protein among the race/income groups suggest that high values of the iron status measurements were seen in conjunction with high values of these variables in the diet.

Mean hematocrit, serum iron and transferrin saturation levels were higher in menstruating females, but not significantly higher.

A greater number of upper-income white girls consumed vitamin/mineral supplements than other race/income groups. Only 20% of those consuming vitamin/mineral supplements were consuming supplements with iron. This study illustrates the need for stressing adequate iron intakes for adolescent girls in the future planning of nutrition education and intervention programs, especially those developed for girls in the South.

Download
Files over 3MB may be slow to open. For best results, right-click and select "save as..."

Included in

Nutrition Commons

Share

COinS