THE EFFECT OF DAILY LOW-DOSE IRON SUPPLEMENTS IN FEMALE BLOOD-DONORS WITH DEPLETED IRON STORES - COMPARISON WITH FEMALE NONDONORS

Female blood donors with serum ferritin less than or equal to 20 mu g1 (-1) and haemoglobin > 120 g1(-1) participated in an iron supplement s tudy with two different low-dose supplements in a period without donat ions. Comparable non-donors served as controls. Serum ferritin, haemog lobin and transferrin were determined. Increases in serum ferritin and in haemoglobin, and decrease in transferrin were highly significant ( p<0.01) in both donor groups. In one of the non-donor groups the incre ase in serum ferritin and decrease in transferrin were highly signific ant (p<0.01), while in the other only transferrin changed significantl y (p<0.03). The increases in serum ferritin and haemoglobin over a 5-m onth period were significantly higher among donors (p<0.001) than amon g non-donors. We interpret the results to mean that the donors have a more efficient iron absorption.