American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 31, 377-380, Copyright © 1978 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc

ORIGINAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS

Hemoglobin concentration in white, black, and Oriental children: is there a need for separate criteria in screening for anemia?

PR Dallman, GD Barr, CM Allen and HR Shinefield

The concentration of hemoglobin in blacks was found to be 0.5 to 1.0 g/dl lower than that of income-matched whites in several large surveys. This difference could be a racial characteristic of blacks, or it might be due to a higher frequency of genetic traits such as thalassemia minor and hemoglobinopathies, or to environmental factors such as iron deficiency. To help in making this distinction, we analyzed the data from multiphasic examinations (1973 to 1975) on 1718 white, 741 black, and 315 Oriental healthy, nonindigent children between 5 and 14 years of age. In the entire population, the median hemoglobin concentration averaged 0.5 g/dl lower in blacks than in whites of both sexes (t test, P less than 0.001). The differences still averaged 0.5 g/dl (P less than 0.001) after exclusion of all those with abnormal hemoglobin by electrophoresis (Hgb S and C) and those whose mean corpuscular volume was more than 5% below the normal mean for age (to exclude iron deficiency or thalassemia minor). The data strengthen the impression that blacks normally have a concentration of hemoglobin averaging about 0.5 g/dl less than in whites. If this is the case, about 10% of normal blacks will be mistakenly designated anemic, if the same norms are applied.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				B. Lozoff, N. Kaciroti, and T. Walter Iron deficiency in infancy: applying a physiologic framework for prediction Am. J. Clinical Nutrition, December 1, 2006; 84(6): 1412 - 1421. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. G. Hardman and J. S. Wills The development of hypoxaemia during apnoea in children: a computational modelling investigation Br. J. Anaesth., October 1, 2006; 97(4): 564 - 570. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				G. P. Schechter and E. Beutler Hemoglobin levels in African-Americans. Blood, March 1, 2006; 107(5): 2208 - 2209. [Full Text] [PDF]

				V. M. Cardenas, Z. D. Mulla, M. Ortiz, and D. Y. Graham Iron Deficiency and Helicobacter pylori Infection in the United States Am. J. Epidemiol., January 15, 2006; 163(2): 127 - 134. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				N. van den Broek Anaemia and micronutrient deficiencies: Reducing maternal death and disability during pregnancy Br. Med. Bull., December 1, 2003; 67(1): 149 - 160. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				P. Alur, S. S. Devapatla, D. M. Super, E. Danish, T. Stern, R. Inagandla, and J. J. Moore Impact of Race and Gestational Age on Red Blood Cell Indices in Very Low Birth Weight Infants Pediatrics, August 1, 2000; 106(2): 306 - 310. [Abstract] [Full Text]

				J. C. Godel Breast-feeding and anemia: Let's be careful Can. Med. Assoc. J., February 1, 2000; 162(3): 343 - 344. [Full Text] [PDF]

				E. Beutler, T. Gelbart, and A. Demina Racial variability in the UDP-glucuronosyltransferase 1 (UGT1A1) promoter: A balanced polymorphism for regulation of bilirubin metabolism? PNAS, July 7, 1998; 95(14): 8170 - 8174. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]