ORIGINAL RESEARCH

Prevalence of iron deficiency in adolescent high performance sports

About authors

1 Federal Research and Clinical Center for Children and Adolescents of the Federal Medical Biological Agency, Moscow, Russia

2 The National Medical Research Center for Endocrinology, Moscow, Russia

3 Medical and Biological University of Innovation and Continuing Education of the Federal Medical Biophysical Center named after A. I. Burnazyan of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency of Russia

4 Russian University of Medicine of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Russia

Correspondence should be addressed: Elena P. Isaeva
Moskvorechye, 20, 115409, Moscow, Russia; ur.liam@4747arod

About paper

Author contribution: Isaeva EP — development of the study protocol, collection of data, processing and interpretation of results, manuscript writing; Okorokov PL — collection of data, interpretation of results, manuscript editing; Zyabkin IV — approval of the study protocol, manuscript editing.

Compliance with ethical standards: the study was approved by the Ethical Committee of the Moscow Medico-Social Institute named after F.P. Gaaz (Protocol No. 4 dated October 04, 2021). Parents/guardians or legal representatives of athletes signed a voluntary consent to participate in the study.

Received: 2024-04-16 Accepted: 2024-05-31 Published online: 2024-06-27
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In children, 90% of all anemia cases are due to iron deficiency. Iron is an essential element so iron metabolism disorders have negative consequences for health. Currently, there are no reliable statistical data on the prevalence of iron deficiency in elite young athletes in the Russian Federation (RF). The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of iron deficiency anemia (IDA) and latent iron deficiency (LID) in young elite athletes. We retrospectively analyzed 802 outpatient records of members of the Russian national sport teams aged 13–18 (mean age is 15.4 ± 2.1 years; 434 (54.1%) girls, 368 (45.9%) boys) in 17 sports, who underwent indepth medical examination including clinical blood tests and serum iron level assays. IDA was diagnosed in 43 young elite athletes (5.4% of all examined athletes). The prevalence of IDA in female adolescents was significantly higher than in male adolescents (8.9% and 1.1%, respectively; p = 0.0001). The prevalence of LID in game sports was significantly higher compared to the other sports. LID was recorded in 186 athletes (23.2%). LID was less common in cyclic sports and was not gender dependent. It can be concluded that young elite athletes have a moderate prevalence of IDA (> 5%). However, since LID was diagnosed in 20% of the athletes, it may be necessary to perform thorough examination for timely screening and correction of iron deficiency in adolescent high performance sports.

Keywords: children, iron deficiency anemia, sports medicine, latent iron deficiency, young athletes

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