Iron and zinc nutritional and biochemical status and their relationship among child bearing women in Marand Province

Abstract

Iron and zinc are essential micronutrients for human health. Deficiencies in these 2 nutrients remain a global problem, especially among women and children in developing countries. Many studies indicate the low zinc intakes among premenopausal women and avoidance of meat intake is characterized as one of the main causes. However, it seems dietary zinc reduces iron biochemical indice including ferritin, Hct, Hb, MCV, Transferrin Saturation. This study is an analytical cross-sectional survey and the sample concluded 170 premenopausal women and was a subgroup of the population that was studied in "Evaluation of intervention methods to preventing of Iron deficiency Anemia Research". The data on demographic and food consumption were gathered by related questionnaire. Serum zinc was measured by atomic absorption and other iron related biochemical parameters were measured by their specific related kits. Data was analyzed by food processor 2 and SPSS 10 Softwares. Mean of dietary intake of iron and zinc was 24.51 and 3.45 mg/day respectively. Mean of daily calory intake was 1708.55 Kcal among subjects. Serum zinc was significantly correlated with hematocrit and hemoglobin (P was 0.027 and 0.02 respectively). Analysis of regression between serum zinc and dietary factors including calory, protein, iron, fiber, zinc, vitamin C also showed the significant correlation between serum zinc and dietary vitamin C (r = ?.30, p = 0.026). Among the iron biochemical indices, hematocrit and hemoglobin were significantly correlated with dietary zinc (p was 0.03 and 0.02 respectively). Mean of serum zinc was significantly different between anemic and non anemic groups, but normal, anemic and iron deficient anemic groups did not show significantly difference about serum zinc. Our results indicated that mean of dietary zinc is lower than RDA among the women and this is confirmed by the NHANESII results. At the other hand, the significant relationship between zinc and Hb, Hct, vitamin C would explain the role of vitamin C in enhancing their bioavailability. © Asian Network for Scientific Information, 2007.