Anemia among Druze children in the Golan Heights.

The prevalence and causes of anemia were studied in 294 Druze children aged 10 months to six years. The hemoglobin level was less than 11.0 g/dl in 19%; none of these anemic children had folate deficiency. Iron deficiency, diagnosed on the basis of abnormal values for at least two independent laboratory parameters, was the cause of anemia in all but two cases. The Pearson correlation coefficient for hemoglobin was highest with mean corpuscular volume, erythrocyte protoporphyrin, serum iron, transferrin saturation, total-iron-binding capacity, and serum ferritin. Mean corpuscular hemoglobin and transferrin saturation were abnormal in greater than 90% of anemic children, whereas serum ferritin and total-iron-binding capacity were abnormal in only 70%. In view of its limited sensitivity, serum ferritin appears to be a less useful diagnostic aid in iron-deficiency anemia than other, less expensive laboratory methods.