Poster: Intake of Iron in Northern Italy population
- Details
- Published on Thursday, 26 May 2016 12:10
Background
Globally an estimated two billion people suffer from a chronic deficiency of micronutrients. Iron deficiency and related anaemia is a significant public health problem in several countries, and it becomes a very serious condition in poor resources countries.
Methods
We investigated dietary iron intake of 719 residents of five provinces of the Emilia Romagna region in Northern Italy, using a validated semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire designed to capture eating behaviors in Italy. This questionnaire was specifically developed as part of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition study for the Northern Italy population. We focused our attention especially in non-menopausal women (considered as aged <50), a population at high risk for anemia, to assess if their iron intake is adequate taking into account the population reference intake (PRI) recently established by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
Results
We found an average iron intake of 13.68 (±4.43) mg/day in males and 11.93 (±4.12) mg/day in females without any differences between younger and older women (<50 or ≥ 50). These intakes by young women were lower the intakes recommended by EFSA for non-menopausal women (16 mg/day).
Conclusions
Our analysis suggested that women iron intake in this northern Italy population is much lower than the recommended levels. Public health interventions should be considered to increase iron intake in this population and counteract the risk of iron deficiency anaemia.
