frequency of iron deficiency anemia in girls studying in mashhad high schools

background iron deficiency is one of the most prevalent anemia. 2 million people in the world suffer from it. all young girls are at higher risk for iron defiency anemia, therefore,diagnosis and prevention of this anemia in the young age is very important. materials and methods: a total of 1500 high school girls educated in five regions of education of mashhad (ages 14-18 years) were studied. cell blood count (cbc), serum iron, total iron binding capacity(tibc),ferritin and peripheral blood smear were performed . if mean corpuscular volume (mcv) was less than normal(< 76fl) and red blood cell (rbc) was more than normal(>5×106/mm3 ), hemoglobin electrophoresis was subjected to test by methods of cellulose acetate to check the possibility of thalassemia minor.the data was analyzed by spss(version19) and minitab software. result: this is a descriptive cross sectional research. from 1500 under-experiment people,1094 cases (72.9%) were non-infected, 310 cases(20.7%) had iron deficiency anemia, and 96 cases(6.4%) had other disorders such as thalassemia. in girls with anemia, 272 cases (87.7%) were in stage i, 17 cases (5.5%) in stage ii and 21 cases (6.8%) in stage iii. the average age in stage i was higher than stage ii and iii. . mean and standard deviation for hb, hct, mcv, mch, mchc, fe, tibc and ferritin had significant difference in infected and non-infected group. conclusion this study revealed that the prevalence of iron deficiency anemia in young girls are moderate, so that it is important to reduce the prevalence of iron deficiency anemia in young girls.