Assessing iron status of a population.

Reliable methods for assessing the iron status of a population are essential for developing effective public health measures to combat iron deficiency. The hemoglobin concentration, transferrin saturation, free erythrocyte protoporphyrin, and serum ferritin are all useful but they vary widely in their specificity and sensitivity for detecting iron deficiency. In applying these laboratory parameters, the usual approach in nutritional surveys is to determine the percentage of values outside the normal range. As an alternative, a model is presented here that uses these measurements to estimate the distribution of iron stores in a population. This approach may be particularly useful for evaluating the effectiveness of iron supplementation and fortification programs.