European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Haemoglobin in blood is responsible for supply oxygen to the organs and tissues of humanbody. It is directly associated with aerobic performance. Iron is one of the important nutrients which human body needs to make haemoglobin. Iron is an essential micronutrient which human body needs in small amount. For female participating in endurance sports the requirements of iron will increase due to high depletion of iron stores during physical activity.One of the major causes of iron deficiency is an inability of body to absorb enough iron from food. Dietary iron is classified into two types named ashaeme iron and non heme iron. Animal based products such as liver, seafood and poultry are rich sources of heme iron which absorbed easily by the body. Vegetarian diet contains non heme iron which is less efficiently absorbed by human body as compare to heme iron. The present study was conducted to determine iron intake and haemoglobin level among female athletes in endurance sports with respect to their dietary patterns.A total number of fifty national level female athletes participating in different endurance sports (Hockey, Football, handball, cycling and basketball) age ranged between 18 to 25 years participated in study. Anthropometry measurements height, weight and BMI were taken for each subject. For assessment of dietary iron intake 24 hours dietary recall method was used for consecutive 3 days. Bloodsamples were taken for assessment of haemoglobin. The prevalence of vegetarianism was higher in female athletes participating in endurance sports. The result of study revealed that iron intake of female athletes was lower than recommended dietary allowance. The haemoglobin concentration of non-vegetarian female athletes was significantly higher than vegetarian female athletes when there was no significant difference was observed between the dietary iron intake of these two groups. It was observed from results of study that there was a positive relationship between dietary iron intake and haemoglobin concentration in female athletes.