Anemia and iron status in Inuit infants from northern Quebec

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Willows, Noreen D.
  • Dewailly, Éric
  • Gray-Donald, Katherine

• The iron status and diet of Inuit infants living in northern Quebec who were part of a prospective cohort study was described. The prevalence of anemia (hemoglobin values >2SD below the reference mean) was 21.1% (23/109), 47.4% (55/116) and 37.7% (46/122) at 2, 6 and 12 months, respectively. The corresponding prevalence of microcytic anemia was 0.0%, 4.3% and 21.3%. At 2, 6 and 12 months, iron-deficiency anemia (serum ferritin < 10 µg/L coupled with anemia) was present in 1.3% (1/79), 24.4% (21/86) and 26.3% (25/95) of infants, respectively. Compared with breastfeeding, the odds ratio for iron deficiency (serum ferritin < 10 µg/L) for bottle-feeding with cows’ milk or low iron formula was 3.02 (95% CI 1.25-7.27) at 6 months and 3.05 (95% CI 1.28-7.28) at 12 months. This study shows iron-deficiency anemia to be a problem in Inuit infants as young as 6 months old. Breastfed infants were better protected against iron deficiency than infants fed cow’s milk or low-iron formula

• Date created

  2000-01-01

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Health
  • Deficiency
  • Infection
  • Age

• Type of Item

  Article (Published)

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-xk5k-c238

• License

  © 2000 N. D. Willows et al. This version of this article is open access and can be downloaded and shared. The original author(s) and source must be cited.