What is Iron-Deficiency?
Iron deficiency is a condition that occurs when the body lacks sufficient iron to produce hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells (RBCs) responsible for transporting oxygen to tissues.
This deficiency can lead to iron-deficiency anemia (the deficiency of RBCs or hemoglobin), the most common type of anemia globally.
Causes of Iron Deficiency:
- Blood Loss: Heavy menstrual periods, pregnancy, and chronic blood loss due to cancer, ulcers, and hernias can lead to significant iron loss. This is a primary cause of iron deficiency.
- Poor Dietary Intake: Too little consumption of iron over time can deplete the body's iron stores.
- Increased Demand: When the body requires more iron, typically during periods of rapid growth (e.g., in infants and adolescents) or pregnancy.
- Genetics: Certain medical conditions (like celiac disease) are inherited and can hinder the body's ability to absorb iron.
Symptoms of Iron Deficiency:
- Fatigue and Weakness: Due to reduced oxygen delivery to tissues.
- Pale Skin: Due to decreased hemoglobin levels.
- Dizziness or Lightheadedness: Due to reduced oxygen delivery to the brain.
- Pica: Unusual cravings for items of no nutritional value like ice or dirt.
- Brittle Nails and Hair Loss: Due to not hitting nutritional requirements.
Key Populations Affected by Iron Deficiency:
- Women ages 15-49: Approximately 30% of these women are affected by IDA, primarily due to menstrual blood loss.
- Pregnant Women: The demand for iron increases significantly during pregnancy to support fetal development, leading to a high prevalence of iron deficiency in this group.
- Children: An estimated 40% of children globally are affected by anemia, particularly those under 5 years old. Infants and young children are especially at risk due to rapid growth and insufficient dietary iron intake.
- Infants: Premature infants or those with low birth weight are particularly susceptible to iron deficiency, often due to inadequate iron stores at birth and insufficient dietary intake.
- College Students: Many college students have irregular eating patterns, often skipping meals or consuming fast food, which can lead to inadequate iron intake.
Current Diagnostic Methods:
Current diagnosis methods to test iron levels for iron-deficiency anemia require blood to be drawn.
- Complete Blood Count (CBC): Measures various components of blood, including hemoglobin and red blood cell indices.
- Serum Ferritin: Indicates stored iron levels in the body.
- Serum Iron and Total Iron-Binding Capacity (TIBC): Evaluates the amount of circulating iron and how well iron is transported in the blood.
- Transferrin Saturation: Indicates the percentage of transferrin that is saturated with iron.
- Peripheral Blood Smear: Involves examining a blood sample under a microscope to assess red blood cell morphology.
Designing Our Human Practices Framework
When constructing the frame of the human practices portion of our project, our team decided to focus on the populations that are most vulnerable to not receiving adequate care for iron-deficiency anemia, along with others who were most vulnerable to the condition in general. These demographics, as mentioned before, include college students, women, especially those who are pregnant, children, and the elderly, and in all, any of these individuals who may have a lower income. These factors pushed us to think of the ease of use of our device, along with the affordability.
A publication that allowed us to better understand the gravity and priorities in our human practices work would be “Iron-Deficiency and Anemia” written by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in 2022. This article outlines the issue of iron-deficiency anemia, its symptoms, causes, along with the treatment methods and diagnosis processes. The article was also very informative in relation to consequences of lack of adequate treatment, which gave greater insight on the gravity and usefulness of the development and implementation of our device in daily life and healthcare.
Another publication that aided the focus specification process was “Who is at Risk of Iron-Deficiency Anemia? Infants and Young Children” by the Hematology-Oncology Associates of CNY. This article expounded upon how teenagers, along with women who are of child-bearing age can be at greater risk of severe iron-deficiency anemia. Other parts of the article that steered us towards focusing on college students and low income demographics would be the explanation of how poor diets fueled by fiscal issues and daily life can cause or worsen the condition. Diets that are low on animal-based protein, fat, and fiber can contribute to low iron. In greater contribution, this article also showed how important it is for our device to use saliva rather than blood, as many of these “at-risk” demographics do not benefit from losing blood when monitoring their iron levels.
Considering how anemia affects such a large portion of the world’s population but is also an issue that is not the most efficiently tackled in public health, our human practices team aimed to establish concrete reasoning and research to ensure that the development and implementation of our device will concretely contribute to better treatment of the condition.
Our Human-Centered Approach
With these factors in mind, our Human Practices team is focused on uncovering how the integration of this device into daily lives and medical procedures can contribute to more accessible and efficient iron-deficiency treatment. In order to achieve this, we carried out different investigative measures such as informative surveys and interviews with medical students and people with the given condition, in efforts to accurately analyze the potential impact of our device. Our device presents a diverse demographic that would benefit from it, therefore we began our investigation by placing an emphasis on college students as our subjects. College students live busy lives day-to-day and are vulnerable to neglecting their required iron intake or monitoring their iron levels if they are predisposed to IDA. Therefore, we utilized peer-reviewed research, surveys, and interviews to gain a deeper understanding of the lives of students with iron-deficiency symptoms or those with IDA and how our device would benefit them, as well as from medical student shadowing at NYU, and how our device would impact medical diagnostics with iron-deficient patients.
Results from our Surveys:
To demonstrate the prevalent issue of iron-deficiency and the need for our device, our human practices team used a combination of research and surveys completed by the general public and healthcare personnel to reflect the gravity on both ends of the healthcare spectrum.
Our research indicates:
- In the general public, 46.5% of respondents have been diagnosed with iron deficiency, and 14% believe they may be iron deficient but remain undiagnosed (Fig. 1)
- Despite this, 70.8% of surveyed individuals are not taking any measures to monitor their iron levels (Fig. 2).
The research and surveys also helped to reflect the overall inaccessibility of current iron-monitoring methods.
- Surveyed healthcare professionals unanimously agreed that “iron-deficiency is under-monitored by the general public” (Fig. 3).
- Similarly, 50% of respondent community members disagree that “current iron-monitoring methods are fairly accessible” while 2.1% strongly disagree with this statement (Fig. 4).
