COMMON ANAEMIA IN RURAL GAMBIA II. IRON DEFICIENCY ANAEMIA AMONG WOMEN

The present investigation on women, combined with an earlier report on men (TOVLEY, 1968a) adds to numerous other reports on iron deficiency anaemia (e.g. PAT-w~atDnAN, 1962; W.H.O., 1963) a new method of investigation; a sex difference in the part played by hookworm infection and splenomegaly; and a concentration on facts relevant o any effort to reduce the anaemia, bearing in mind the problems of the area concerned. Detail of investigation The villages The women were aged 17 or more, from the neighbouring Mandinka villages of Keneba and Jali, where studies on anaemic men were also in progress (ToPLEY, 1968a). Malaria is hyperendemic during the rainy season from July onwards. The selection of anaemias and their less anaemic controls At a viUage haemoglobin survey in March 1965 all the women with haemoglobin below 9.5 g. per 100 ml. were taken for further investigation. Every tenth woman as she came to the survey was taken as a less anaemic 'control ' provided the haemoglobi