Effects of vitamin D prophylaxis on oral iron treatments of iron deficiency anemia.

BACKGROUND Iron deficiency anemia causes a decrease in immune response to infections, physical working capacity and response to metabolic stress. It also causes behavioral, perceptual and cognitive disorders. Therefore, as soon as iron deficiency anemia is diagnosed, it should be treated immediately. In this study, it was investigated retrospectively whether there was a difference in treatment efficacy between the administration of oral ferrous or ferric iron and vitamin D at the same time and at different time. METHODS A total of sixty patients under 1 year who attended the pediatrics outpatient clinic for pale and diagnosed with iron deficiency anemia. Patients were randomly divided into 4 groups. Anemia was defined as hemoglobin below <2 SD according to age and gender. Iron deficiency was definied with serum iron, iron-binding capacity, ferritin and transferin saturation below the range for age and gender appropriates. All patients were seen at the outpatient clinic for 1st, 3rd month of the treatment. RESULTS There were a statistically significant differences between the groups in terms of increase in Hb values according to time (1st month, 3rd month, 1st and 3rd month). There was no statistically significant difference between the groups in terms of the recovery of anemia after treatment. CONCLUSIONS It was concluded that iron treatment in babies with iron deficiency anemia is not affected by the administration of vitamin D prophylaxis at the same time or at different times, and therefore both treatments can be administered at the same time to increase drug compliance.