Anaemia, iron deficiency and iron deficiency anaemia among blood donors in Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Background There is paucity of information on the effect of blood donation on iron stores in Port Harcourt Nigeria The present study was therefore designed to assess using a combination of haemoglobin and iron status parameters the development of anaemia and prevalence of iron deficiency anaemia in this area of Nigeria Materials and Methods Three hundred and forty-eight unselected consecutive whole blood donors comprising 96 regular donors 156 relatives of patients and 96 voluntary donors constituted the study population Three haematological parameters (haemoglobin, packed cell volume and mean cell haemoglobin concentration) and four biochemical iron parameters (serum ferritin, serum Iron total iron binding capacity and transferral saturation) were assessed using standard colorimetric and ELISA techniques Results The prevalence of anaemia alone (haemoglobin <11 0 g/dL) was 13 7% The prevalence of isolated Iron deficiency (serum terrain <12 ng/mL) was 20 6% while that of iron-deficiency anaemia (haemoglobin <1 1 0 g/dL + serum ferritin <12 0 ng/mL) was 12 0% Among the three categories of the donors the regular donors were found to be most adversely affected as shown by the reduction in mean values of both haematological and biochemical iron parameters Interestingly, anaemia iron deficiency and iron-deficiency anaemia were present almost exclusively among regular blood donors, all of whom were over 35 years old Conclusion Anaemia iron deficiency and iron-deficiency anaemia are highly prevalent among blood donors in Port Harcourt Nigeria It will be necessary to review the screening tests for the selection of blood donors and also include serum ferritin measurement for the routine assessment of blood donors especially among regular blood donors