Frequency of iron deficiency anaemia and beta thalassemia minor among adolescent school girls in Ahvaz, Iran

Objectives: to investigate the frequency of causes of anaemia among adolescent school girls in ahvaz in 2009.methodology: a cross-sectional study was conducted on 208 adolescent girls aged 15-19 years from high schools in ahvaz. blood samples were taken from all patients and were sent to laboratory for determination of complete blood count (cbc) test, serum ferritin (sf), hemoglobin electrophoresis (hb f, hb a2) was done for all of the anaemic cases. iron deficiency anaemia was defined as a situation where hb is less than 12 g/dl and ferritin is less than 12 ng/ ml. beta-thalassemia were identified by high performance liquid chromatography (hplc) analysis of hemoglobin and hb a2>3.4.result: of the 208 patients, 37 cases (17.8%) were anemic and iron deficiency anaemia was found in only 11 from 208 children (5.3%), minor beta thalassemia was found in only five of 208 children (2.4%), mixed beta thalassemia and iron deficiency anaemia was found in four of 208 (1.9%) and other patient with anaemia 19 patient (9.1%) minor alpha thalassemia was considered. anybody of students were macrocytic anaemia.conclusion: the results suggest that thalassemia and iron deficiency anaemia may be major contributing factors to the occurrence of anaemia in this area among schoolgirl population