Know Your Health
Ferritin Surveillance: What Is Our Testing Telling Us About Iron Deficiency?
Iron deficiency is a common health concern and it does not always present as anaemia. Clinical and functional effects can occur even when anaemia is absent, making ferritin an important marker when assessing the body’s iron stores.
Toga Laboratories reviewed ferritin results from our testing population to better understand the patterns seen across different age and sex groups.
What did our testing show?
Our surveillance identified clear differences in the patterns of low ferritin results across age and sex.
Among females, results below 30 ng/mL were concentrated particularly within the 30–49 age groups. In males, the pattern shifted towards older age groups, with 70+ representing the largest group among male results below 30 ng/mL.
Why does ferritin matter?
Iron deficiency can have consequences even before anaemia develops. For women of child-bearing age, menstruation, childbirth and breastfeeding are among the common reasons for iron deficiency.
In older men, iron deficiency may require further investigation to identify possible underlying causes, including gastrointestinal blood loss.
Looking beyond the result
Finding low iron stores is only part of the picture. The underlying cause should also be considered so that treatment and any necessary further investigation can be appropriately guided.
It is important to remember that these findings represent patients tested by Toga Laboratories and should not be interpreted as prevalence within the wider South African population.