Age–Gender Specific Reference Values for Iron Indices Among Apparently Healthy Population in Abeokuta, South Western Nigeria.

ABSTRACT Introduction: The knowledge of laboratory reference values is necessary because most available reference values for laboratory tests are outdated or adopted from the manufacturers of the diagnostic test derived from the populations living in Europe and United States. Objectives: The study is aimed at determining the age-gender specific reference values for iron indices among apparently healthy individuals in Abeokuta, South-Western Nigeria. Methods: A total of 385 subjects which comprised of 180 (46.75%) males and 205 (53.25%) females were enrolled in this study of within aged 18 and 77 years. The subjects for this study were recruited after the informed consent was obtained from every participant. Data were also collected with semi-structured self-administered questionnaire based on World Health Organization guidelines for students’ substance use survey. The data generated were expressed as Median and 95 percentile (2.5 and 97.5 percentile distribution) and were used to construct the reference ranges. The study reference values were compared with the standard reference values using the one Wilcoxin Signed Ranked Test. Result: The majority (80.78%) of these participants have tertiary education at the time of enrollment. Most of the subjects (88.05%) were Yoruba ethnicity, typically Abeokuta residents. The results showed that all the determined study reference values were significantly different from the standardized reference ranges (P