Iron Status in Relation to Well- Being Questionnaire(H10WB) Scores in Division I Female Athletes

Objective: The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between iron storage and overall well-being in female college athletes. This was done to determine a cost-effective screening method for iron deficiency. Design: Retrospective Cohort Subjects and Settings: All subjects were 117 Division I Female Athletes at James Madison University. Subjects were ages 17-22 from different teams(Cross Country, Track & Field, Basketball, Field Hockey, Lacrosse, Volleyball, Golf, Swimming & Diving, Soccer, and Softball). We excluded 1 subject based on a medical diagnosis. Some subjects had more than one data entry based on their year at JMU. Main Outcome Measure: Data was recorded for individuals who have in the past received blood draws testing for ferritin levels and have completed a Henriques 10-Item Well-being Questionnaire(H10WB) within a year of the blood draw. Results: Correlations resulted in no significant relationship between ferritin levels and H10WB total scores with a 1-tailed p-value of .071. There was some significance seen with responses to individual questions within the questionnaire and ferritin(p=.02 and p= .032). Conclusion: Since there was very little significance found for this relationship we can conclude that the symptoms of changes in athlete’s overall well-being status are not present in those with iron deficiency. Research does support a relationship between these symptoms with iron deficiency anemia therefore, these results could represent that those symptoms are not experienced with iron deficiency. This suggests the increased need to find a screening tool for healthcare providers to use to determine an iron deficiency without requiring blood draws from everyone. This would allow professionals to determine this deficiency before it becomes anemia and these symptoms develop