Epidemiology of Iron deficiency, anemia, Iron deficiency anemia among 6-36 months children in Kashan, 1997

History and Objectives: Iron deficiency anemia is one of the most frequent underlying causes of anemia around the world especially in developing countries. Nutritional deficiency is the major contributing factor and it has detrimental effect on the physical and cognitive development of individual. Since one of the goals of Ministry of Health and Medical Education is to reduce the prevalence of the Iron deficiency anemia and in order to determine the prevalence of the disease, the resent investigation was performed on children referred to the Kashan medical and hygiene clinics in 1997. Materials and Methods: A descriptive study on 335 infants (6-36 months) referred to the Kashan medical and hygiene clinics was performed. Hemoglobin level (Less than 10.5 g/dl) and serum ferritin (Less than 12 ?g/dl) were used as diagnostic tests. Results: The present study shows anemia, Iron deficiency and Iron deficiency anemia were 22.4, 43.5 and 57.3% respectively. 77.3% of anemias were due to Iron deficiency. The most prevalent age group was 9-24 months. The prevalence of Iron deficiency for term milk feeding, preterm, breast-feeding and non breast-feeding infants were 41.3%, 55.1%, 42% and 50% respectively. Conclusion: Due to high prevalence of Iron deficiency anemia Iron as prophylactic measure is suggested.