Anemia among female college students attending the University of Sharjah, UAE: prevalence and classification

ABSTRACT

Anemia remains a public health challenge worldwide. Very few studies have been conducted on anemia in the United Arab Emirates and they have focused on children and pregnant women. Little is known about anemia among college female students from a preliminary study of iron deficiency anemia that was conducted on medical college students. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of anemia among female college students attending the University of Sharjah [UoS] in the United Arab Emirates [UAE]. A secondary analysis of the records of 258 complete blood cell count results from consented female college students. Hemoglobin [Hb], hematocrit [Hct], mean corpuscular volume [MCV], mean corpuscular hemoglobin [MCH], and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration [MCHC] were used to determine the prevalence of and classify anemia according to RBC indices and disease severity. Emirati students represented 50.8% of the studied population. The overall prevalence of anemia [Hb <12g/dL] was 26.7% and the majority [88.4%] of the 69 anemic students had mild anemia, whereas 7.2% were moderately anemic and 2.3% Emirati students were severely anemic [hemoglobin <7g/dL]. About 15.9% of the anemia cases were microcytic [MCV <80fL] and 1.6% were macrocytic [MCV >96fL]. The results showed that anemia constitutes a health problem among female college students in the UAE, and most of the detected anemia was microcytic with mild severity. This warrants further study on a larger sample of healthy college students to validate these findings and eventually encourage the development of directed educational and nutritional programs to safeguard the health of these future mothers