INTAKE OF IRON IN A NORTHERN ITALY POPULATION

Backgrounds: Globally an estimated two billion people suffer from a chronic deficiency of micronutrients. Iron deficiency and related anaemia is a significant public health problem in several countries, and it becomes a very serious condition in poor resources countries. Methods: We investigated dietary iron intake of 719 residents of five provinces of the Emilia Romagna region in Northern Italy, using a validated semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire designed to capture eating behaviors in Italy. This questionnaire was specifically developed as part of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition study for the Northern Italy population. We focused our attention especially in non-menopausal women (considered as aged <50), a population at high risk for anemia, to assess if their iron intake is adequate taking into account the population reference intake (PRI) recently established by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Results: We found an average iron intake of 13.68 (±4.43) mg/day in males and 11.93 (±4.12) mg/day in females without any differences between younger and older women (