THE EFFECT OF IRON DEFICIENCY ANEMIA ON GLYCATED HEMOGLOBIN (HBA1C) IN NON DIABETIC ADULTS

Background: Iron deficiency anemia is the most common form of anemia in India. Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) is used in diabetic patients as an index of glycemic control reflecting glucose levels of the previous 3 months. Like blood sugar levels, HbA1c levels are also affected by the presence of variant hemoglobins, hemolytic anemias, nutritional anemias, uremia, pregnancy, and acute blood loss. Previous studies suggest that iron deficiency anemia (IDA) affects the levels of HbA1c. Methods: A prospective observational study on 50 iron deficiency patient cases and 50 healthy control. Exclusion and inclusion criteria were used to recruit cases from the wards and OPDs of the hospital. Appropriate descriptive statistics was used to analyse the data. Results: The HbA1C was significantly higher in the iron deficiency patients as compare to the control (5.88 ± 0.41 vs 5.03 ± 0.17, respectively, P < .05). Conclusion: Our results showed that iron deficiency was associated with higher proportions of HbA1c, which could cause problems in the diagnosis of uncontrolled diabetes mellitus in iron-deficient patients. Keywords: Non-Diabetic Patient, Glycosylated Haemoglobin, Iron Deficiency Anaemia.