Screening for anemia in infants : evidence in favor of using identical hemoglobin criteria for blacks and 2

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the need for separate Hb screening criteria according to race by evaluating the Hb response to a therapeutic trial of iron in 1-yr-old infants. Among the 1 128 infants who were screened, a significantly larger percentage of blacks (37%) than Caucasians (22%) had a Hb <11.5 g/dl. However, when these screen-positive infants were treated with oral iron for 3 months, the percentage who had a l g/dl response was similar in blacks (38%) and Caucasians (35%). Our results indicated that a slight but significant inherent tendency to lower Hb values among the black infants was counter-balanced by a substantially higher prevalence of iron deficiency anemia. These findings are in favor of using uniform Hb screening criteria in similar populations. Am. I. C/in. Nutr. 34: 2154-2157, 1981.